Vertical Gas Corridor to expand into Western Balkans, adding North Macedonia and Serbia

Gas transmission system operators (TSOs) met in Athens on 10 July to advance the Vertical Gas Corridor, a regional natural‑gas network linking Southeast and Central Europe. For the first time, operators from Serbia and North Macedonia participated alongside existing members from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia and others. The participants agreed to create a joint technical‑commercial working group, extend the memorandum of understanding to the new members and accelerate infrastructure projects that will raise capacity and improve the market attractiveness of the corridor.

Macedonian Energy Minister Sanja Bozhinovska announced that Macedonia has received an invitation to join the corridor, linking its network to Greece via a 123‑km interconnector (67 km on Macedonian territory) and a planned Serbia interconnector of 65 km (23 km in Macedonia). The projects aim at an annual transport capacity of about 1.5 billion m³ of gas and are scheduled for completion by 2027‑2028. Greek and Bulgarian ministers expressed political support for EU funding applications to further bolster regional energy security, diversify gas supplies and develop an integrated regional gas market.