Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger met yesterday to discuss the European strategy to secure the bloc's energy supplies and Greece’s role in the European natural gas strategy.

Oettinger emphasised Greece's importance in this area, as a transit center and as a supplier with its own reserves and added it could play a role in energy developments. "It will take special significance," he said, as will the interconnection system with a capacity for energy flow reversal so that natural gas can be forwarded from Greece to Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine.

It is noted that the meeting took place shortly before the presentation of the Commission’s integrated strategy on energy security, in the light of the developments in Ukraine, based on completing the internal energy market, indigenous energy production, diversification of supplier countries and routes and energy efficiency increase.