BRUSSELS, September 10 (WNM) - Energy cooperation between Europe and the US needs to be strengthened, Simson said when she was Estonian Economics Minister at a transatlantic meeting of energy ministers in Houston. This was reported by Estonian public broadcaster ERR.

Mrs. Simson said the Americans had raised issues such as the construction of Nord Stream 2 and the diversity of energy supplies. Recently adopted amendments to the gas directive offer the possibility of subjecting the Nord Stream 2 gas link to the principles of the European Union's internal energy market.

Simson is likely to be strenghend in her position after a European court ruling was published on September 10. The European Union on Tuesday said limits on Gazprom's access to the Opal gas pipeline will apply after Europe's top court rejected a later decision that lifted curbs on flows via Opal from Russia's Nord Stream pipeline to Germany. "The principle of energy solidarity is highly valued by the European Commission and, as found by the Court, will need to be asessed explicitly in future exemption decisions," a spokeswoman said.

"As the revised Commission decision has been annulled, there is no legal void. The 2009 exemption decision is now again applicable."

As Estonian Economics Minister, Mrs. Simson never really took a massive stand against Nord Stream 2, but in the background she tried to offer alternatives that could compete with the Russians. Finland and Estand decided to build a liquid gas pipeline. The "Balticconnector" is to cost 250 million dollars and, according to the Finnish newspaper YLE, is not profitable. Calculations in 2015 showed that the project never will reach proifitability. However, the pipeline was built by state owned companies from Finland and Estonia and is supposed to reduce the dependence on Russian gas supplies because the Americans bring their liquid gas to Europe. The Baltic pipeline does not necessarily mean that Russia will deliver less gas to Europe. But the new competition could be used as a threat and increase the pressure on Gazprom to lower prices. Energy professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen told YLE that the Baltic states have already succeeded in doing so in the past.

Nevertheless, Simson is likely to strengthen the orientation towards the USA: "Europe and the US must engage in greater cooperation in the field of energy than has been the case to date", the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economics and Communications quoted her minister after the meeting in Houston. Simson said: "I also stressed this in my remarks at the ministerial meeting, where I emphasised clean energy cooperation and increased knowledge sharing to ensure the security of energy networks and transatlantic energy trade as key areas of cooperation".

According to the new Commissioner, EU Member States have set very specific climate targets and are committed to a cleaner environment and energy.

This is a matter where Europe cannot be left on its own and which has a very big impact on both sides of the Atlantic," she stressed. "The same is true for ensuring energy security. There was a lot of talk at this meeting about cyber security in energy and minimising the risk of cyber attacks. Secure networks are a topic to which regrettably little attention has been paid thus far."

The meeting, attended by US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Energy Ministers from states associated with the Three Seas Initiative in Houston, was the opening event of a new initiative called "Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation".

The meeting also included a separate meeting between the Energy Ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and US Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.