Varsavia is facing the challenge of the energy security and natural gas market represents a growing share of the national comsumption of fuel. In this context Poland, with the country's main energy supplier PGNiG S.A., is trying to lessen the ongoing dependence on the russian gas by finding alternatives such as the LNG station on the Baltic Sea and the Nabucco Pipeline.

In the last few years the European Union has been committed to diversifying the sources of energy it imports in growing quantities. With this perspective in mind, the construction of a natural gas pipeline called ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) is under evaluation. When completed, this project will transport Middle Eastern and Caspian gas resources to south and south-eastern Europe. Will it be feasible and useful?

There are few doubts about the competitivness between the nabucco pipeline project and the South Stream supported primarly by russia. The Nabucco pipeline, which has suppliyng problems, is hardly challenged by Moscow. Nowadays it seems that South Stream has more chances to become one of the main routes suppliyng natural gas to the European Union.

The expectation of the increase of European energy demand, combined with the decrease of the energy sources within the European Union (EU), stresses a growing dependence on energy importation from outside the continent. In order to reduce this dependence on Russian pipelines, a series of projects have been planned. Among these projects is the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP); a planned pipeline that directly concern Italy.

The air transport sector in the Balkans has grown significantly in recent years in terms of business turnover, taking a major step forward. The region has experienced a quantitative increase in the number of civilian flights (i.e. flights transporting passengers and freight). The recent growth in numbers of passengers and airline connections in the region is the result of an economic trend common to all Balkan countries, that is, the orientation of domestic markets towards the EU’s founding members. Thus the dynamics described above have led to an increase in airport connections. Currently there are more than 100 flights per week between Albania and northeastern Italy, specifically between Tirana and Venice, Bologna, Rimini, Trieste, Treviso, Verona and Forlì.

Currently over 60% of central and eastern Europe’s trade is with the western part of the continent and this has benefited from exponential growth in the last twenty years. The growth of trade and infrastructure modernization in the region has been creating a context in which air transport has been fully engaged and was a major target of respective national economic strategies as well as private and public investment from abroad. In the case of airports, civil aircraft and crucial services for air transport, it was a matter of updating and relaunching individual airport systems as well as the larger regional system.