Today in Rome in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller and Chief Executive Officer of Eni Paolo Scaroni signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the South Stream project.

The Memorandum fixes Gazprom and Eni support to EDF accession to the South Stream project.

The parties agreed to specify in the near future the basic terms for EDF entry into the project allowing it to become a stakeholder in South Stream AG created by Gazprom and Eni on a parity basis.

“The given Memorandum was signed following the agreements reached by Gazprom and EDF last week. It demonstrates intention of Russian and Italian partners engaged in the South Stream project to cooperate with French colleagues in the construction of the large-scale transnational gas pipeline. In general, the emergence of the third partner in the project manifests that Europe recognizes the significance of additional gas supply routes from Russia, the biggest and most reliable exporter of hydrocarbons to the market of the continent,” said Alexei Miller.