Czechs, Poles, Hungary seek to deepen energy ties

"Negotiations will start tomorrow in Warsaw with the leaders in charge of energy policy of the Visegrad four countries taking part," Gyurcsany told a press conference after meeting Poland's Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

Gyurcsany said Hungary would submit a proposal to Brussels by the end of March on common EU energy policy, but gave no details on how the Visegrad countries could cooperate in energy issues.

The Czech Republic and Poland agreed earlier on Monday to seek deeper energy ties and discussed wider sources for gas in the wake of the recent row between Russia and Ukraine.

Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said his personal view was that the Czechs, who take about three quarters of their gas from Russia and the rest from Norway under long-term deals, may add another supplier such as Denmark in the future.

Poland plans to build a liquified gas (LNG) terminal and is in talks to buy gas from either Norway or the Caspian region.

Central European countries take most of their oil and gas from Russia, a much higher proportion than the entire EU where Russian supplies amount to about a quarter of overall demand.

Supplies from Russia briefly dropped in early January when the country squared over prices with Ukraine, a key transit country.

"We will have the ambition to come to the special European summit in March this year with common proposals, either bilateral or within the Visegrad countries," Paroubek told a news conference.

Marcinkiewicz said that apart from gas supplies, talks with Paroubek included wider energy policy issues. He said economy ministers from the two countries would meet in February to discuss cooperation further.

Marcinkiewcz also confirmed the discussion touched upon the Czech majority state-owned CEZ , a leading central European electricity firm seeking acquisitions in Poland."

Source: reuters