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PM Ciolos: energy and agri-food sector are natural resources with security impact
Premier Dacian Ciolos said on Tuesday that both the energy and the agri-food sector are natural resources with security impact which require to be strategically capitalized upon; the head of the government said that from the energy perspective Romania holds an important geostrategic position thanks to its location at the Black Sea, the neighborhood with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, and the partnership with Turkey.
"Energy and agri-food are two sectors that share a common point, despite what we could imagine. It's not just that agriculture can also produce energy and that we need energy to produce food, but both the energy and agri-food sector are natural resources with security impact, ie when you have them you need to strategically capitalize on them and when not, one must find a solution to ensure a minimum necessary supply of energy and food. (...) From this perspective, we considered that the debate over how we can ensure energy and food security in the Black Sea region through a better cooperation between the European Union and the countries in the Black Sea region in general and the Eastern Partnership members in particular is a subject where Romania still has something to say. Because Romania has (...) an important geostrategic position both through its Black Sea location and its neighborhood with the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, the partnership with Turkey at the Black Sea, and as a result of its holding oil and gas resources and an electricity production potential which should allow it not only to cover the necessary national supply, but also become an exporter," said Dacian Ciolos.
The Premier, attending the Conference on food security taking place at the Romanian Banking Institute, cautioned that it's not just the existence of the resource that is important, but also the way of using it and getting interconnected so as to get energy moving.
"In order to count on the energy market it's not just the existence of the resource that is important, but also the way you interconnect to get in move this resource energy represents. From this point of view, apart from our holding this potential and the potentially good prospects to exploit the Black Sea gas, Romania can count both on the regional and the European market. But this implies transport infrastructure and interconnection with its neighbors and the region. From this point of view it is important that the European Union, the European Commission has chosen to fund the BRUA interconnection project, linking Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria to Central Europe and to the rest of Europe. It is a project that Romania started to implement and hopefully not only will this project be successfully completed, but European funding will follow to continue connect Southeastern European states with Central Europe and implicitly with the rest of Europe," said Dacian Ciolos.
The PM said that apart from BRUA, it is important for Romania to interconnect with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
"Romania has already made efforts to connect with the Republic of Moldova and they were accompanied and supported by the European Commission; we continue efforts for EC's involvement to continue, so that beyond the political approach to the relationship with Moldova, I think the European partners have understood that it is important to develop economic cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries; in this light, the energy interconnection with Moldova and Ukraine involves investments the EU must assume so that the desire to keep these countries connected to Europe does not stay just declarative. The same goes for Ukraine. I met a few days ago with President Poroshenko and several Ukrainian ministers and I understood and very clearly sensed Ukraine's willingness to continue efforts for the energy connection to the Romanian gas and electricity grids. From this standpoint there is a bilateral desire to seek resources to achieve this connection, with the Romanian electricity companies being also encouraged to get involved in this project," said the Romanian Premier.