Bulgaria Finds Funding for Nabucco

The European Investment Bank has agreed to fund Bulgaria in building its section of the Nabucco natural gas pipeline, the country's prime minister said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said after meeting with said after meeting EIB president Philippe Maystadt, that he had 100 percent of the funding needed to build the pipeline through his country, the Sofia Echo news agency reports.

"To our colleagues from the Blue Coalition I could say that to date we have secured 100 per cent of the funding for the Nabucco project. The moment they tell us to give the money we are ready to transfer it immediately," Borisov said.

One of the conditions set by the centre-right Blue Coalition for pledging its support to the GERB-led Government is giving priority to Nabucco over Russia's South Stream project.

The Nabucco consortium announced in September the signing of a mandate letter from the EIB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank to back the project.

The EIB will commit around $2.5 billion, the EBRD around $1.5 billion and the World Bank roughly $1 billion for the pipeline. The European Commission set aside $256 million for the $11 billion project.

Experts say the real issue for Nabucco is not financing, but in securing supplies from non-Russian suppliers.

However, the EU backed pipeline project did take a step forward with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Azerbaijan for gas supplies.