Romanian President Traian Basescu insisted at a major energy conference in Vilnius on Thursday that EU should intensify cooperation with energy providing and transiting neighboring countries in the East. Basescu used a speech in Vilnius to push for more action on the Nabucco and Constanta-Trieste pipeline projects.

In his intervention at the Vilnius summit on Thursday morning Basescu said that cooperation in the region was a way to boost energy security and argued that the Black Sea potential has been exploited insufficiently as the Sea is the shortest route to Europe as it faces a growing need of secure routes.

Both the Nabucco project, due to transport natural gas from Central Asia to Western Europe, and the Constanta-Trieste oil pipeline would contribute to a stronger energy security for the EU and a lower dependence on Russia’s energy resources, he said.

Saying that Russia was an very important energy partner for the European Union, Basescu insisted however that Romania believes energy should not be anything else than a traded good, with no political interference.

The same conference in Vilnius was due to hear the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Ukraine as well as energy ministers from Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey on Thursday.