International Energy Forum in Bucharest

Bucharest hosts an International Energy Forum attended by representatives from 16 Central and Eastern European countries and China. The event - that started on 8 November with the first ministerial conference within the China-Central and Eastern European (16+1) format - is the first concrete action of the Agreement signed last year by the 17 countries, at Romania’s initiative, an Agreement where signatory countries committed to collaborating in various energy projects.

China wants to be more and more present on the global economic markets, and the European energy market is an opportunity for Beijing. At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe needs to develop its energy infrastructure and require investments that it can not achieve alone, hence the evident chances of success of the collaboration platform between these two regions.

Bucharest event creates a framework for dialogue and negotiation between the Government and the business environment, between Europe and China, between research and funding, in short, between project and reality, says Corneliu Bodea, President of the Romanian Energy Center.

Corneliu Bodea: "You will see how the latest technologies and innovative solutions dramatically change the way we generate, transport and consume energy. Challenges and trends can only be met by partnership and sharing know-how and capacity in a mutually beneficial way to all partners, because energy is a global problem with regional solutions".

Nobody says clearly who has the most advanced technology, but certainly China is the one to come up with the finances, because all the representatives of the 16 Central and Eastern European states mentioned projects they intended to start in their own countries together with Chinese representatives. This is also the case of Romania, who wants to continue the negotiations for reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda, but also for the Rovinari thermal power station.

Robert Tudorache, State Secretary at the Romanian Ministry of Energy: "Both are major energy projects for Romania, that once developed will have a huge impact at national and regional level in terms of strengthening energy security. I would like to express my desire to conclude negotiations with our Chinese partners and I consider that the 16 + 1 format gives us a good opportunity to discuss the future of these two projects".

Romanian Energy Minister Toma Petcu points out that the partnership with China does not come or does not contain elements that contradict Romania's position as part of the European Union and of the EU energy policy.

Toma Petcu: "I emphasize the fact that Romania, an EU Member State, remains firmly committed to the achievement of the EU objectives. I can assure you that Romania pays a special attention to the 16 + 1 economic cooperation format, which is an opportunity for our states to identify new opportunities in this strategic area".

Chinese Energy Minister Nur Bekri says his country wants to increase its presence in the European states that are part of the 16 + 1 cooperation platform. As evidence, the Beijing Executive will set up a special Secretariat through which China will keep in touch with the 16 countries, for energy projects.

The Chinese side also proposes a collaboration in the energy research field, which will start with bilateral visits of authorities, businesses and researchers, from 2018 onwards. China expects this partnership to lead to sharing know-how on innovation and research. The Chinese minister says his country will allocate about three billion euros for this kind of collaboration with the 16 European countries.

Nur Bekri: "We will launch a joint energy research in the form of 16 + 1, to ensure study visits of governmental and business environment representatives from both sides. First event will take place in the first half of 2018 and we look forward to inviting the representatives of Romania.

To ensure a smooth implementation of joint research, China will provide a total of three billion funding and all the intellectual support, and Central and East European countries will provide information for the project. The Romanian Energy Center will contribute to energy development and joint energy projects in the Central and Eastern European countries and China".

The event will continue today and tomorrow, and the organizers and participants expect negotiations and agreements on concrete energy projects, but also signing of an Agenda that will mention the steps for the next actions or investments.

The participating European countries are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei