Lobbying against TAP in the US

Richard Lugar, a senator for the last 35 years, has handed over to the Committee for Foreign Relations a voluminous report in which he appeals the American government to support Nabucco and lobby against the Trans-Adriatic pipeline, the only one that includes Albania in the international gas market, until new sanctions will be decided.

Nabucco and TAP are the two remaining competitors for the agreement of the gas transportation in Europe. But the two projects follow different tracks. The first one leaves Albania outside the international gas network. It starts in Turkey and goes through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungaria, and ends in Austria. TAP that is supported by the Albanian government goes through Turkey, Greece, Albania and ends in Italy.

“The United States should support the Nabucco project, which is strategically more superior since it transports gas in Eastern and Southeastern states that depend from Russia. Although some other Balkan countries will be favoured through the TAP project, these propositions are not included in the actual project and its plan of finances”, says Lugar in his report. Lugar give details why Nabucco is clearly more superior than TAP for the US interests in the region.

“Although the interest of the US does not stand in the construction of Nabucco, this project offers the most important progress in two objectives. First of all it supplies gas to many US allies in Europe, who have a desperate need to diversify the energetic sources, and secondly, offers the potential to transport more gas in the future”, Lugar notes in the report.

Certainly that the other allies would profit from the construction of TAP, but the Russian energetic pressures are bigger in Central and Southeastern Europe, which would profit more from Nabucco. “For this reason, the US have the obligation to their allies to speak clearly on this issue of common interest”.

Lugar supports Albania

Besides being a key figure in the Foreign Policy of the US Senate, Lugar is also known in Albania. In 2004 he was one of the strongest voices in the Senate to help Albania eliminate the chemical weapons remaining from the communist regime. A program made by Lugar and Nunn, Albania became the first former communist country outside the Soviet Union that profited 20 million USD from the US government to destroy chemical weapons. MR. Lugar was also one of the strongest supporters for Albania’s NATO membership.

In 2006 he was among the first American officials who warned that Albania would become a NATO member within 2008. For this contribution, Lugar, who has visited Albania several times, was decorated by President Topi with the title “Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu”. Lugar has been a senator for the last 35 years, but in the last elections he failed to be appointed by the party by being replaced by another republican, Richard Murdock, who will be the new senator of Indiana.

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