Black Sea region, vital for energy security of EU

Region of the Black Sea gets a vital importance for the energy security of the European Union, said, on Friday, state secretary for global affairs Doru Costea, at the Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum, organized in Bucharest, Sept 30-Oct 2, by the Atlantic Council of the United States, ACUS, with support from the Foreign Ministry, MAE, and the Ministry of the Economy.

'In the Black Sea region, there are various geostrategic interests, processes of economic consolidation and last, but not least, frozen conflicts. By the process of enlargement of NATO and the EU, the Black Sea has become an area of complementarity among various strategic views, exceeding the regional scale. More and more, the region gets a vital importance for the energy security of the European Union,' Costea said.

According to MAE, the first day of talks at the forum was dedicated to projections on the energy future, approached being subsequently also the topic of the governmental answers to the challenges already seen.

Doru Costea presented a series of elements representing concerns at the level of the energy policy, numbering among its priorities the diversification of the sources and routes of energy supply, starting from the basic principle that the existence of a multiple option is to the benefit of competition and of the citizen.

'We consistently promoted in this respect, as a priority of the agenda of foreign policy, the achievement of the Nabucco project in the field of natural gas, the most important alternative project of gas in the Black Sea region and which enjoys support at the level of the EU (...). The priority represented by Nabucco in the area of natural gas is completed in the national energy policy by the objective of the achievement of the PEOP gas pipeline (Constanta-Trieste).

We also promote the fulfillment of energy projects with short-time and medium impact, such as the LNG terminal in Constanta, projects for the storage of gas, the interconnection with the energy systems of the neighbouring countries, the achievement of a regional energy bourse respectively,' Costea added.

The organizers of the forum intend to facilitate the trans-Atlantic dialogue in the field of energy security and efficiency and the setting up of a framework of good cooperation and convergence of the interests of the participants in the field of energy.

The forum intends to be a platform of achievement of the partnerships in this sector and of the debates on the future challenges and of the difficulties faced, equally, by the producing states, the transit and the consuming ones in the carrying out of energy projects. Another important objective of the forum is the easing of the expertise swaps and the drawing up of recommendations of solutions for the participating states, apt to contribute to their long-last development.

agerpres.ro