In his keynote address at the Sofia Energy Summit, the EC President, Jose Manuel Barroso, declared he was proud of how EU handled the Russian gas cutoff crisis.

Barroso praised the EU states for their solidarity with the six Union members, including Bulgaria, and six non-members that bore the brunt of the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute crisis, which started on January 7, 2009, and lasted for almost a month.

In his keynote address at the Natural Gas for Europe summit, Barroso stressed the interdependence of transit states, producers, and consumers of natural gas explaining that the dependence went in all directions, and it was not just the EU that was dependent on energy imports.

Barroso acknowledged the fact that the interests of the different states varied but they were complimentary which provided a sufficient basis for the deepening the process of energy security and energy solidarity.

The European Commission President used Bulgaria as an example of a country which was both badly affected by the January gas cutoff but which also enjoyed the solidarity support of the EU.

"EU is investing heavily in Bulgaria's European energy future", Barroso stated sounding rather optimistic about the energy security process, and the outcome of the Summit.

In his words, the EU is already going in the right direction with its 2020 energy strategy, and the energy investments of the European Economic Recovery Plan.

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