The energy strategy will be put up for public debate in the next period, currently working on its updated draft, said Dan Drăgan, state secretary in the Ministry of Energy.

“It is worth mentioning that we are in the process of developing the Energy Strategy. It will be put up for public debate in the next period. We are working on the adapted, updated draft of this strategy and we invite you, as before, to send all your observations, all points of view for to succeed in incorporating them into this strategy. It will be based only on principles, strategic areas to be developed. It will not be about projects, very important, because we want this strategy to be implemented through specific projects,” said Drăgan, quoted by Agerpres.

For his part, the general director of Hidroelectrica, Karoly Borbely, welcomed the efforts regarding the updating of the Energy Strategy and emphasized that all energy companies have a vision, but there is no integrated one.

“I welcome the ministry’s efforts to debate and update the Energy Strategy. It is incredible how a country like us, with extraordinary energy resources, does not have an updated, up-to-date strategy and we always find ourselves faced with a situation, let’s say, quite interesting, what is happening now in the energy markets, and let’s not have a very clear vision, although we have resources, we have strong companies. And Romgaz, and Hidroelectrica, and the other companies, we each have a vision , but we don’t have an integrated one. What I was telling you that I want to see: what is Romania’s plan in the area of wind and solar energy. It would be an extremely important thing not only for us, but also for those who operate the grids distribution. There are a lot of ongoing projects. Let’s see what will happen with them. So, from our point of view, we are already working on the proposals that we will submit to the Ministry of Energy. There will certainly be more debates and we will participate in them,” said Karoly Borbely.

Corneliu Bodea, Adrem CEO and president of the Romanian Energy Center, mentioned that the Strategy currently in progress is based on three major principles, security, accessibility and sustainability, and has nine basic principles.

“The highlighted subject related to the Energy Strategy puts me in a somewhat defensive position, because as a member of the Honorary Council of the Minister of Energy, whose objective is to work on the Energy Strategy, I have to defend this initiative and I do so with authenticity, I mean, I’m not doing it just because I’m a member of this board. I want to tell you that over the last probably six months, from October to November, this board has been working pretty hard to shape what’s going to be the new Energy Strategy of Romania. This document is to be finalized by the ministry soon and proposed in public debate, on which occasion we will all be able to express our opinion. I want to tell you that this document (…) is based on three major principles, of otherwise globally recognized principles, because they are the principles established a few years ago by the World Energy Council, namely: security, accessibility and sustainability.Then, there are nine basic principles, strategic principles on which the document is based. I won’t go into details. The idea is that at a strategic level, the vision regarding Romania’s energy future is quite clear. Romania’s commitments in this sense are also clear and will be supported by what will be the new Energy Strategy. But, moreover, they are already assumed through other documents, through targets that Romania has accepted or is negotiating, including PNIESC (Integrated National Plan in the field of Energy and Climate Change no), which is a more complicated document, for that, unlike the strategy, it contains concrete projects, concrete measures and that is why it must go through this consultation and approval, including with the Ministry of the Environment,” Bodea explained.