To secure their energy supply, Poland and Slovakia have connected their national gas networks with a pipeline. The connection allows Slovakia to receive natural gas from Norway and liquefied natural gas previously routed through Poland, Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Friday at a joint press conference with his Polish colleague Mateusz Morawiecki in the town of Strachocina, near the Polish-Slovakian border.
In turn, the link will give Poland access to gas from Algeria, which will be routed via Italy and Slovakia. In the past few months, Russia had throttled or stopped gas supplies to several EU countries as a result of Western sanctions due to the Ukraine war. Poland is cut off from the supply, Slovakia only receives 40 percent of the actually agreed amount from Russia.
“This connection gives us a new sense of security and a sense of freedom as we will no longer be dependent on Russian gas,” said Slovak Prime Minister Heger at the pipeline inauguration. His Polish counterpart Morawiecki took the opportunity to present the Warsaw has been criticized for years for targeting the German-Russian Nord Stream pipelines. “It is a peace pipeline – unlike the Nord Stream 1 and 2 built by Germany and Russia with the support of other countries, which are war pipelines”said Morawiecki.
