国际英语新闻：EU needs more energy cooperation, less Russia-bashing say energy experts

BUDAPEST, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Energy experts said at a conference in Budapest on Friday that increased cooperation between European Union countries rather than Russia-bashing was the solution to energy supply conflicts in Central Europe.

The conference, organized by Budapest-based think tank the International Centre for Democratic Transition(ICDT), focused on energy security in 2011 and the challenges it poses to the Hungarian government as it takes over presidency of the European Union in 2011.

In February, the Visegrad 4 (V4) countries the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia agreed to step up coordination of intra-regional gas transit links between countries in Central Europe as well as investment into storage facilities. "Energy security should be the primary focus of V4 cooperation," said Jiri Schneider of the Prague Security Studies Institute.

Schneider warned against the EU chasing "big dreams like an energy Schengen." Instead he suggested a more cautious and natural development of a more competitive and integrated internal EU energy market given the background of the current economic turmoil in the eurozone and the debate ,regarding enlargement of the existing Schengen zone. He said that supply interconnections are more important than new pipelines. "We need only relatively small investments, not necessarily big new pipelines or north or south stream projects," he added.

Istvan Gyarmati, head of the ICDT, agreed that the real issue for the Hungarian presidency and the EU is not in building pipelines but in fostering cooperation between countries in the V4 region and the EU. "The solution is not in Moscow but in Brussels. Russia-bashing can be popular but the solution to these problems lies in European cooperation," he said.