Romania must see to what extent certain proposals put it in a difficult situation and we must negotiate, come up with proposals, use our position in the (European) Council and the position of the Romanian MEPs to powerfully communicate our point of view, but, at the same time, we need to understand that the road is irreversible and to understand what the opportunities are – there are many opportunities that can be extremely important for the Romanian business environment and for the main actors of the energy industry, said the Romanian MEP Cristian Bușoi, during the 7th edition of the Energy Strategy Summit, an event organized by Energynomics.
“The greatest opportunity is represented by the European funds, necessary to make this transition possible, and here are the ones directly allocated to Romania… we must have good projects and implement them. The energy pillar of the PNRR, the projects that have an impact on the energy system of the Cohesion Fund and obviously, the Just Transition Fund, which is dedicated especially to those regions in Romania that are heavily dependent on coal, or that have a significant heavy industry…. and other opportunities directly at European level. I think it is time to look more closely at centralized projects and programs,” said the EPP member.
“We are talking about projects of common interest, and in the past certain interconnections have been completed through this tool – Connecting Europe Facility. I know that Transelectrica and Transgaz also had certain programs and opportunities. We are talking about the Horizon Europe program, where research and development projects in the field of hydrogen, but also of other new technologies, in the field of clean technologies can be funded, and we enter into a consortium with other entities from other European countries. We are obviously talking about the Modernization Fund, which is extremely important… Depending on the price of the certificates, obviously we can think of a very ambitious amount, some experts even talk about 10 billion euro for the coming years. And what it means Invest EU, the successor to the Juncker Plan, but completely different… certain projects related to energy transformation can be financed. I believe that these opportunities, which are related to energy transformation, should not be missed in any way – it is up to us to organize, to know them, to understand them very well,” the PPE official added.
Projects for which there is competition at the European level require lobbying, collaboration with the EC and the EIB or other entities or financial institutions.
“There will be a very interesting period for the energy systems in the European Union. The transformation is irreversible. However, I believe that everything that is decided at European level and has an impact on the Member States must be economically feasible, supported by sound impact assessments, not just political desires… We must not forget that we cannot endanger jobs, on the contrary, we must create jobs. We also need to think about energy security – we can’t be even more dependent on certain energy sources outside the Union… and we need to think about the price and the burden that citizens, consumers, have to bear in the end. Here, clearly, everything we decide must take into account the fact that we cannot go to unsustainable energy prices for consumers,” added Bușoi.
2021 Energy Strategy Summit was organized by Energynomics, with the support of Automatica, BCR, CE Oltenia, Chimcomplex, E.ON România, Electrica Furnizare, Electroalfa, EnergoBit, Enevo Group, FPPG, Greencells, Horvath & Partners, ING Bank, Hidroelectrica, MET România Energy, Nuclearelectrica, OMV Petrom, Photomate, Rolls Royce, Romgaz, Schneider Electric, Signify, Transgaz.
