Romania sent EU Commission first draft of integrated national energy, climate plan

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Romania submitted the first draft of its Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate to the EU Commission last week, ensuring it addressed a series of previous issues that contributed to its delay in approval, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said on Monday.

The Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) has to be approved by next summer. A prerequisite for this plan is approving an energy strategy, something Romania has not yet done.

“Unfortunately, at this moment, Romania doesn’t have an approved national energy strategy. There have been several attempts, from 2016 until now”, minister Burduja said, expressing his intention to establish this strategy by the next spring, with the help of World Bank experts.

“We have a very ambitious calendar, we want to have a final version of this strategy by February or March. It will be a flexible strategy, rather than a vision document, without a list of projects,” the energy minister said at a conference.

There will not be a list of projects due to time constraints. The environmental assessment is “long and complicated” and, therefore, will be conducted through the new integrated national plan of energy and climate change.

Minister Burduja explained that the national energy system needs a “secure energy”, and a future energy mix encompassing production capacity in nuclear and gas, small modular reactors (SMRs) in the medium and long term, and “a significant emphasis on green energy”.

The national plans outline how the EU countries intend to address the 5 dimensions of the energy union: decarbonisation, energy efficiency, energy security, internal energy market, research, innovation and competitiveness.

(Cătălina Mihai | Euractiv.ro)