The Republic of Moldova will be fully integrated into the common EU Energy Purchase Platform. This will enable to diversify the natural gas supply sources and to enhance Moldova’s energy security, stated Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu, who recently returned from the meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Energy Community that was held in Vienna, IPN reports.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development took part in the High Level Energy Dialogue co-chaired by EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson. “I was glad to see so much openness on behalf of the European community and my counterparts, who are ready to offer assistance in strengthening the energy sector and building resistance. Moldova’s friends are in the EU,” Andrei Spînu posted on Facebook.

The officials discussed the subsequent efforts to purchase gas for emergencies and to store it for this winter and also for next winter, to increase the gas flows to the underground reservoirs in Ukraine and Romania, including through Backhaul procedures, so as to accelerate the liberalization and competition of the gas market in Moldova and the region.

The development of Moldova’s internal capacities to produce electrical and heat energy and the prioritization of the completion of the two planned high-efficiency cogeneration units until 2025 (engines – 55 MW estimated electricity and 43 Gcal/h) were also in the agenda of the event. “With the assistance of the EU, we will continue to develop the Energy Vulnerability Fund so as to support the vulnerable energy consumers and to help them pay the energy bills in 2023,” stated the official.

On March 25, the European Council announced new measures to diminish European dependence on Russian gas, including a common purchase platform that will be open also to the Western Balkan countries and to the three associate Eastern partners – Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia.