Romania will attend on May 5 in Sofia the first regional working group, part of the Energy Platform of the European Union for joint acquisitions of natural gas, during which the solutions for security in energy supply will be discussed, announced, on Monday, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu.

“Romania will attend the first regional working group, as part of the EU Energy Platform for natural gas procurement, which will take place in Sofia on May 5, to discuss with Bulgaria and our partners in the region the solutions for security of energy supply,” the minister wrote on his Facebook page.

While in Brussels, the Minister had a working meeting on the sidelines of the Energy Council meeting with Ditte Juul Jorgensen, general director of DG ENER at the European Commission, with whom he discussed concrete energy infrastructure projects, prospects for operationalizing deep onshore natural as well as offshore Black Sea gas exploitation that can bring energy security benefits to Romania and the region.

Earlier, Virgil Popescu had a working meeting with Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for Energy. The topics addressed focused on the energy security situation at EU level, diversification of sources and supply routes, investments planned by Romania in the sector, including from the perspective of capitalizing on the potential of offshore reserves in the Black Sea, according to Agerpres.

“Also, in the context of the current discussions on reducing energy dependence on Russia, we discussed concrete ways to coordinate future action at European level and, in parallel, to launch regional projects aimed at identifying alternative energy supply solutions,” stressed the Minister of Energy.