The European Union and Moldova on Tuesday agreed on an energy security plan aimed at reducing its dependence on Russian gas and electricity and bringing it into the 27-member bloc’s energy grid.
The European Commission said that Moldova would receive 250 million euros this year, of which 100 million euros by mid-April, after Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom cut supplies on Jan. 1.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Moldova’s separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region were left without heating and hot water in January over an alleged $700 million bill for past supplies to Moldova, which Chisinau disputes.
The two-year Comprehensive Strategy for Energy Independence and Resilience of Moldova has “a two-fold objective of decoupling Moldova from the insecurities of Russian supply of energy and fully integrating it in the EU energy market,”a statement said.
“The Kremlin created a humanitarian problem and (our) European partners have come to fix it,” said Prime Minister Dorin Recean.
The European Commission said that the financial package will aid consumers in Moldova – a country of 2.5 million which has applied for EU membership, by helping to cover rising electricity bills. It earmarked some 60 million euros for 350,000 people in Transnistria who have borne the brunt of power outages.
“The package offered by the EU will allow us to continue with compensations, avoid a humanitarian crisis and invest in Moldova’s energy security.”
Gazprom’s decision to halt supplies came into effect a day after a gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine expired.,
Transnistria’s gas-operated Kuciurgan power plant provides a significant amount of Moldova’s electricity.
Moldovagaz delivered 3 million cubic meters of gas at the beginning of February to Transnistria, which was financed by the EU.
Moldova which has faced pressure from Moscow to reverse its westward path of recent years was left entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. It has sought to diversify its energy sources to neighboring Romania and elsewhere.
Moldovan,Ukrainian presidents discuss Ukrainian coal to ease Transnistria energy crisis
