VOA标准英语2009-EU Seeking Energy Independence From Russia

The European Union has signed an agreement with four nations to move ahead on creating new gas pipelines² to reduce its energy dependence³ on Russia.
　
Czech Republic's outgoing PM Mirek Topolanek, left, welcomes the President of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, in Prague, Czech Republic, 08 May 2009

The European Union signed the new energy deal during a summit in Prague with four countries - Egypt, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The agreement aims to help pave the way toward creating a series of gas pipelines from central Asia and the Middle East through Turkey and into Europe.

Two of the countries which signed the deal, Azerbaijan and Egypt, are gas rich. Two others, Turkey and Georgia, would host the pipelines carrying the gas. Europe hopes that one of the planned pipelines, known as Nabucco, will be up and running by 2014.

At a press conference in Prague, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hailed the agreement.

"We have shown European Union opinion is serious about this project," he said. "We will provide the legal, the financial, political framework for companies to do their business. Energy is a traded commodity, but it is important also the political input⁴ we put into this project."

The agreement aims to help Europe diversify⁵ its energy sources. Right now, 25 percent of its gas comes from Russia. And that has created problems - like in January, when a gas pricing dispute with Ukraine cut energy supplies and left a number of Europeans without heat.

But three other countries that attended the summit, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, have reportedly not signed onto the agreement. Still, Europe is pushing ahead, hoping parties to the Nabucco pipeline¹ will seal a deal with Turkey by June.

Turkey, which hoped to join the European Union, threatened in January to block Nabucco, citing a lack of progress in its talks on EU accession, but on Thursday it voiced full support to the project.

The draft joint⁶ statement also called for progress on ITGI, a Turkish-Greek gas pipeline taking gas to Italy, and for an extension of an oil transport system between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan that "could be developed in the Mediterranean⁷ and the Black Sea region."

1 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

2 pipelines   

管道( pipeline的名词复数 )； 输油管道； 在考虑（或规划、准备） 中； 在酿中

参考例句：

• The oil is carried to the oil refinery by pipelines. 石油通过输油管输送到炼油厂。
• The oil carried in pipelines. 石油用管道输送。

3 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

4 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

5 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

7 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。