The European Commission plans to set up a new working group to advance the integration of central and south-eastern European gas markets and pipeline grids, following demands from EU countries, such as Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Slovenia, whose gas supply would be badly impacted by the cancellation of Gazprom's South Stream gas pipeline project. The EU will seek to develop a "Southern Gas Corridor" to enable gas deliveries from Azerbaijan. Earlier this week, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania reached an agreement on the construction of a 3-5 bcm/year gas pipeline, named Vertical Gas Corridor, linking the Revithoussa LNG terminal and the future Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) in Greece to Romania; the project would replace the South Stream gas pipeline in Bulgaria and Romania.
An Azerbaijan - Europe gas pipeline was the aim of Nabucco, a 31 bcm/year proposed gas pipeline project, which was in direct competition with South Stream (parallel line through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria) and with the 10-20 bcm/year TAP pipeline to export gas from Azerbaijan; in June 2013, the Shah Deniz consortium (Azerbaijan) selected TAP over Nabucco to export gas to Europe, de facto stalling the Nabucco project.