EU signed a deal with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Egypt and Turkey on May 8 to boost plans for a southern energy corridor.

A joint declaration of the Southern Corridor Summit in Prague says participants support for the EU's planned Nabucco pipeline, which would run from the Caucasus to the EU via Georgia and Turkey.

It also says that the participating countries “agree to give necessary political support and, where possible, technical and financial assistance to the construction of the Southern Corridor, including the Trans-Caspian energy transportation projects, in order to support the diversification of energy sources, markets and transport routes.”

“Actually Georgia has become a key transit point for [transit] of gas to Europe,” President Saakashvili said in Prague. “There was a great dispute, there was a great discussion; but we have worked much and what has been signed in Prague today will not only guarantee that we will never face the problems of gas and electricity supplies, but our political importance will also increase significantly, because of gas and electricity transportation via the territory of Georgia.”