The expected deliveries of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria will be a "small breakthrough" for the European Union, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov declared in Baku.

Parvanov met Monday with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, who confirmed Azerbaijan's commitment to providing Bulgaria's with about 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year once the respective gas transit pipelines are completed.

The outgoing Bulgarian President, whose second and last term expires in January 2012, emphasized that the Bulgaria-Azerbaijan gas deal is an important sign for Europe.

The EU has been seeking to attract natural gas suppliers from the Caspian Sea Region and Central Asia – among which Azerbaijan is a key country – in order to reduce its dependence on natural gas from Russia – both via the Nabucco gas transit pipeline and through more minor projects.

"Bulgaria has its place of being a pro-active factor in these energy relations that can overtake the relations between the EU and Azerbaijan with the realization of some of the initiatives that we started long ago," Parvanov said in Baku Monday, as cited by BNR.

"We need to get one small breakthrough in order to demonstrate to Europe how things can be done, and after that the natural gas supplies will become much more sizable in the so called Southern Gas Corridor. If realized, this small breakthrough [between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria] will be significant for Europe, not just for Bulgaria and our region," elaborated the Bulgarian President.

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