The two projects, which were included in a preliminary list in November, will benefit from accelerated approval and implementation procedures and, under certain conditions, can access to European funding from the so-called 'Connecting Europe Facility'.

The two projects involving Snam are a pipeline to bring hydrogen from Italy to Austria and Germany and a system to liquefy, transport and store carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Adriatic Sea. Italy's Eni is cooperating on the CO2 initiative.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)