Chisinau, Kyiv and Bucharest will implement a number of projects that will allow them to expand the supply of electricity from Ukraine to Moldova and Romania.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI), the respective agreement was reached during a meeting held in Odessa by the foreign ministers of the three countries, Nicu Popescu, Dmytro Kuleba and Bogdan Aurescu, together with the ministers in charge of energy issues in their countries: Andrei Spinu, German Galushchenko and Virgil Popescu. The parties held the first informal ministerial meeting in this trilateral format. The meeting was attended by representatives of the national regulators of the three countries, as well as leading energy companies. The meeting in this format was the first in the history of trilateral relations between Moldova, Ukraine and Romania. The ministers discussed the regional security situation in the context of the war in Ukraine, which has created the most serious security and humanitarian crisis on the European continent in decades. They considered the implications for the regional security environment as a whole, including managing refugee flows, providing humanitarian aid, ensuring energy security, and protecting safe and secure transportation and transit. The ministers discussed the European integration process of Moldova and Ukraine, taking into account the historic decision of the European Council of June 23-24 to grant candidate status for EU membership to the two countries. They assessed the steps taken by Moldova and Ukraine and the measures they plan to take to further advance on the EU integration path. In a joint communiqué issued at the same time, the Moldovan, Ukrainian and Romanian foreign ministers underlined their interest in promoting trilateral cooperation in all fields of common interest, especially in promoting the political dialogue and improving the diversification of energy supplies, based on balanced, transparent, non-discriminatory relations, ensuring fair competition, integrating energy markets, increasing the electric energy exchange between Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, and reconstructing the power sector. In addition, they agreed to accelerate technical discussions on the use of gas interconnectors, capacity allocation in electricity and gas interconnectors and minimization of payments for unintended fluctuations through cross-border interconnections in accordance with FSKAR rules. The parties agreed that the EU candidate status granted to Ukraine and Moldova, together with the successful synchronization of their networks with the European continental network ENTSO-E, opens new opportunities for regional cooperation aimed at improving energy sustainability and security of supply, and agreed on the need for more efficient use of underground gas storage facilities, which are an important element of regional energy security. Moldova, Ukraine and Romania also agreed to conclude a trilateral agreement to strengthen energy supply interconnectivity between the countries and to start working with the European Commission for its immediate implementation, including funding. They also agreed to work closely together to increase bilateral commercial electricity supplies under short-, medium- and long-term contracts between the countries' companies, expressed willingness to meet regularly, and agreed to dedicate the next meeting to increasing the transit potential of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. To this end, they will invite representatives of the relevant agencies to join them to discuss existing problematic issues and options for increasing existing and creating new transit capacity. // 16.09.2022 – InfoMarket
