The two-day International Energy Security Seminar, titled “Energy Security in the EU’s Neighbouring South-Eastern Countries: Transition to Green Energy and Interconnections between SEE Countries,“ took place on 27-28 June 2024 in RACVIAC. The Seminar was organised by RACVIAC – Centre for Security Cooperation in partnership with the Ministry of Energy of Romania, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania.
During the Seminar Opening Welcome Remarks were delivered by H.E. Ambassador Constantin-Mihail Grigorie, Director of RACVIAC and Mr. Dan-Dragoș Drăgan, Secretary of State from the Romanian Ministry of Energy.
Opening the Seminar Ambassador Grigorie greeted all the participants and lecturers and extended a special welcome to colleagues from the Ministry of Energy of Romania, whose invaluable collaboration has been instrumental in organizing this seminar.
RACVIAC Director reflected on the fact that the South-Eastern European region faces significant challenges regarding energy security, primarily due to its heavy reliance on a single supplier. This import dependency creates vulnerabilities, making the region susceptible to supply disruptions caused by political or commercial disputes. The European Commission recognized these concerns in the Energy Security Strategy (2014) and the Energy Union Strategy Framework (2015), both of which aim to ensure a stable and secure energy supply for European citizens and economies.
Since 2014 Romania has assumed a leading role when it comes to addressing energy security within the RACVIAC context, coordinating projects and facilitating discussions on this critical issue. Over the years we have convened seminars in various locations, each building on the last one to address the evolving energy security landscape and the need for diversification and regional cooperation.
Furthermore, he emphasized that this year, focus is on the transition to green energy and the interconnections between South-Eastern European countries. We are living in times of multiple challenges that demand great resources, resilience, integrated management, proactive approaches, communication and determination. The recent energy crisis has underscored the need for abundant energy resources, affordable prices and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve sustainability in the energy sector.
The Seminar delved into the topical issues that South-Eastern European countries face regarding energy security in view of the insights and conclusions from the past events. Furthermore, the state of interconnections in the region, the holistic vision of power system organizational structures in the context of green transition and the keys to and challenges in facilitating and accelerating this transition were discussed.
Ambassador Grigorie expressed the confidence that through the active participation and collaboration, valuable insights and actionable strategies to enhance energy security in the region will be generated.
Mr. Dan-Dragoș Drăgan in his Opening Remarks said that investments in green technologies, energy security and sustainable solutions as well as the allocation of the adequate funding will be the key to achieve the climate and energy objectives and shape a new low-carbon economic growth model. The future of energy depends on the decisions we make today, towards a modern, innovative economy that will serve the well-being of our peoples, but also the environment.
A realistic transition to clean energy is needed, beneficial not only for the environment, but also for the economy and consumers. However, we need to ensure compatibility between this transition process and the economic growth. The transition to a low-carbon economy must aim to create a sustainable energy sector that stimulates growth, innovation and job creation and, at the same time, increases the quality of life, expands the range of products and services and reduces consumer bills.
In Romania, energy priorities will focus on new investments needed to increase the contribution of renewable energy to the energy mix, including exploiting the potential of offshore renewable energy in the Black Sea, large-scale storage of electricity and hydrogen in difficult to decarbonize sectors.
This year edition of the Energy Security Seminar was designed as a two-day event with two panels, dubbed “The role of green energy in the process of diversification of the energy sources” and “State of play regarding the interconnections in the South-Eastern European Countries”.
The first session revolved around a discussion about facilitating and accelerating the green energy transition, including demand, system flexibility and electrification paradigm changes, state ownership and renewable energy technology adoption, together with the keys to and challenges for green transition while the second session focused on the projects of interconnectivity in the South-Eastern countries.
The Seminar concluded with the Working visit to thermal power plant/bioelectric power plant TE-TO/BE-TO Sisak.
