An agreement to build the so-called Poland-Lithuania Gas Interconnection natural gas pipeline was signed on Thursday by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

National leaders, including Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz signed the contracts on Thursday on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels.

“We are launching a project that will allow us to overcome historic limitations, including the direction of gas supplies from East to West,” PM Kopacz told a press conference.

Poland has been heavily dependent on gas deliveries from Russia for several decades. The investment is aimed at diversifying the countries’ energy supplies.

“You have witnessed a breakthrough, history being made”, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker added.

“You have ended the energy isolation of the Baltics,” Juncker added.

Work on the pipeline will begin next year and is expected to be finished by 2019.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, PM Ewa Kopacz opened a liquefied natural gas terminal at the Baltic port of Świnoujście, northern Poland, which is yet another move expected to improve the energy independence of the country. (ał/rg/rk)