Bulgarian PM Sergei Stanishev signed the agreement for the construction of the EU’s Nebucco gas transit pipeline in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Monday. The Turkish government signs the deal with the transit EU member states Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria for the US-backed EU Nabucco gas pipeline, which aims to reduce Europe's energy dependence on Russia. The project is valued for EUR 7.9 billion. Stanishev commented that the signing of the agreement for Nabucco is a defining accomplishment of the governments of the countries participating in the project. ‘This is our clear and distinctive contribution to the diversification of energy sources that is the basis of Europe’s energy security’. ‘We are starting to confound the skeptics, negotiations once seemed irrevocably blocked, but now we have an agreement and I believe this pipeline is inevitable not impossible,’ European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said. The pipeline aims to supply Europe with gas from the Caspian and Middle East, freeing the EU from the Russian energy supply monopoly.