The European Union has signed an agreement with four nations to move ahead on creating new gas pipelines to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
欧洲联盟跟四个国家签署协议，为在能源方面减少对俄罗斯的依赖而修建一套新的天然气输送管道。
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.
欧盟是在布拉格举行的一次峰会上跟埃及、土耳其、阿塞拜疆和格鲁吉亚签署这个新的能源协议的。这个协议的目的是为从中亚和中东通过土耳其到欧洲修建一套天然气管道铺平道路。
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.
在这个协议上签字的两个国家-阿塞拜疆和埃及-都蕴藏着丰富的天然气资源。另外两个国家-土耳其和格鲁吉亚-将在她们的国土上修建管道以把天然气输送到欧洲。欧洲希望计划中的天然气管道之一，也就是所谓的纳布科管道，能在2014年建成并投入使用。
At a press conference in Prague, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hailed the agreement.
在布拉格举行的一个记者会上，欧盟委员会主席巴罗佐对这个协议表示赞赏。
"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 input we put into this project."
他说：“我们已经表明，欧洲联盟对于这个项目的意见是严肃的。我们将为参与这项工程的公司提供法律、财务和政治框架。能源是一种在市场上交易的商品，然而同样重要的是我们给这项工程注入的政治内容。”
The agreement aims to help Europe diversify 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.
这项协议的目的是帮助欧洲实现能源来源多元化。目前，欧洲25%的天然气来自俄罗斯，这造成了很多问题。比如今年1月份，当俄罗斯跟乌克兰就天然气价格问题发生争议时竟然切断了能源供应，导致好几个欧洲国家在严寒的冬季无法取暖。
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 pipeline will seal a deal with Turkey by June.
然而另外三个出席这次布拉格峰会的国家-哈萨克斯坦、土库曼斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦据报导没有在这个协议上签字。尽管如此，欧洲仍然在加紧努力，希望所有涉及纳布科天然气管道的国家能够在6月之前跟土耳其签署一项协议。
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.
土耳其一直希望加入欧洲联盟，可是由于在加入欧盟的相关谈判中缺乏进展，土耳其曾经在今年1月威胁说要阻止纳布科天然气管道工程。不过这一次，土耳其却表示全力支持这个项目。
The draft joint 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 Mediterranean and the Black Sea region."
此外，布拉格峰会的联合声明草案还呼吁在ITGI天然气管道问题上取得进展，这条贯通土耳其和希腊的管道可以把天然气输送到意大利。这次峰会还提议扩大哈萨克斯坦和阿塞拜疆之间的石油输送系统，使其延伸到地中海和黑海地区。 |