At a meeting of the EU energy ministers, most of the European Union member states backed the idea that we need as many interconnections as possible, as soon as possible, with Bulgaria and Greece asking for permission to activate certain mechanisms for the protection of the final consumers and possibly taxing inframarginal producers, who enjoys Romania's Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja told AGERPRES on Wednesday.
"The big problem is that they cannot be done overnight, like any infrastructure project, as we can see, after 30 years in which not much has been done," said Burduja.
He added that it was requested that, when it is found that the market is decoupling and we pay six, eight, ten times more than the Western European states, this kind of mechanisms should be allowed exceptionally, because the current European legislation allows targeted protection of the final consumer.
Burduja participated on Tuesday in a Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting in Luxembourg.
He wrote on Wednesday, in a social media post, that he proposed atthe meeting a strict monitoring by the European Commission of the capacity of cross-border flows in transit countries, where there are lines but they are only used to a small extent, and a coordination of maintenance works that can suddenly block certain interconnections, leading to a massive increase in prices.
Given that, according to Burduja, energy prices in Eastern Europe have been much higher than those in Western Europe for several months, other solutions put forward by him regard speeding up investment in new interconnections and exceptional short-term measures to protect European citizens and the economies of the member states.
Regarding his request for short-term exceptional measures to protect European citizens and member states' economies, Burduja explained that it is necessary to ensure that the energy market in the EU works fairly for everyone, and that injustices are quickly corrected.
Romania, Bulgaria and Greece have sent a Letter to the European Commission showing that the deficit of cross-border interconnection hinders efficient energy flows in the EEA region (South-Eastern Europe) during critical periods, exacerbating surging power prices, especially in the evening, during peak hours, when generation from renewable sources decreases.
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