Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja believes that it is unfair and impossible to supply electricity exclusively to Moldova and Ukraine.
In his opinion, the European Union should bear part of these costs. The Romanian official reminded Brussels that the idea of a European energy market is one of solidarity so that everyone benefits.
“When energy is cheaper in one part of Europe, it is also cheaper in another part of Europe, so we can pay the same prices. This is a question of the standard of living of EU citizens, but also of the competitiveness of the economic environment. When prices in Eastern Europe are three times higher than in Western Europe, this is certainly not an integrated single market or a fair and competitive economic environment. Especially in the current conditions, when we also have to support the energy demand of Ukraine and our brothers along the Prut.” – Burduja emphasized.
He added that some form of compensation is also possible on this issue: for example, Bucharest could accept additional EU funds for investments, extend the closure of coal-fired power plants and also extend the validity of price restrictions on end-user bills.
“We demand from Brussels a fair and principled deal so that we can all play our part in this additional effort. It is not normal to bear this burden alone, especially during the war in Ukraine. We must sit at the negotiating table in the EU Council of Ministers and call a spade a spade: we support Ukraine with the utmost solidarity, not to mention the Republic of Moldova, but at the same time we cannot bear these costs alone, it is unfair,” – concluded Sebastian Burduja.
Let us recall that in 2022 Moldova was synchronized with the European Network of Transmission Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), but not directly, but through Ukraine, whose energy system is currently in crisis. Chisinau is currently implementing a project to directly connect Moldova to the Romanian energy system, which it plans to complete next year. Negotiations are also underway for the sale to Romania of two energy companies (RED Nord and FEE Nord) in the north of the Republic of Moldova.
Moldovan authorities have also announced their readiness to install power plants on their territory to supply electricity to Ukraine. The generators are planned to run on Ukrainian gas.
As reported EADaily Currently, 88% of Moldova’s electricity needs are covered by MoldGRES located in Transnistria (an Inter RAO company), whose contract was concluded until the end of the year at a fixed price of $66 per MWh. This is several times cheaper than buying electricity in the EU. However, kyiv has warned that from the new year it will block the transit of Russian gas used by this company.
The Moldovan government has made no secret of the fact that, under these conditions, it is pragmatically interested in Russia continuing to supply gas to Transnistria. Chisinau has even asked Gazprom to look for alternative routes to the region, for example via the Turkish stream.
