Bulgaria will receive an EU grant of EUR 850,000  for the rehabilitation, modernization and expansion of its gas transmission system under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), an EU funding programme for infrastructure.

The financing is part of allocations of almost EUR 180 M in CEF grants for studies and work relating to the construction of gas interconnections between Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

EU Member States agreed on a Commission proposal on Tuesday to invest a total of EUR 217 M in key trans-European energy infrastructure projects, mainly in Central and South Eastern Europe.

In total, 15 projects were selected following a call for proposals under the CEF, the European Commission said in a statement. Of the 15 proposals selected for funding nine are in the gas sector and six in electricity sector.

“In the gas sector, the allocated grants will cover, among others, studies for modernising the Bulgarian gas transmission network which will improve the possibilities for the transport of gas in the region,” which will benefit particularly Greece, Romania, Macedonia and Turkey, according to the statement.

Making available EU funding for the interconnector linking gas networks in Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary “is an important development for the EU gas market as this will allow gas from the Caspian region and other potential sources, including LNG, to reach Central Europe,” the European Commission said.

The European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete commented in the statement: ”With this funding we will help secure supplies and fully integrate Europe's energy market by connecting networks across Europe. We must press ahead with the modernisation of our energy networks to bring any country still isolated into the European energy market.”