Bucharest, October 1, 2024 – by RBJ – The transition to green energy brings many opportunities but also challenges, and Romania and Germany can collaborate, exchange best practices and experiences. In addition, this framework offers numerous business opportunities for companies from both countries. That was the message conveyed by the participants of the round table “The future of the energy market – opportunities for bilateral cooperation in the region”, organized on Tuesday by AHK Romania. Members of the delegation led by the Minister-President of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, composed of ministers, state secretaries, members of Baden-Württemberg State Parliament, senior civil servants, company directors, together with representatives of German and Romanian companies attended the discussions.
”We have to say that Romania is an absolutely reliable, stable, pro-European partner in Europe today, who stands for the European integration. In the discussions I had with the Prime Minister and the President of Romania it became clear to me, that we can achieve this great transformation processes, in a world full of unrest and insecurity, only if we commit ourselves to Europe”, said Winfried Kretschmann.
He added that energy plays a central role in Germany, which decided to phase off the nuclear energy and has the ambitious goal to give up coal and to expand renewables. ”The path we are taking means that we will become independent from any imports of any kind, such as fossil fuels or nuclear energy. But the challenge is that we have to expand the networks, which should be digitized”, he continued.
Nevertheless, this transformation process should be turned into a business model, that can create jobs and revenues. ”This also includes the technology offensive. We will only be able to do this in a European way. That is why I am looking forward to continuing our exchange and our conversation. We need security in the supply chain. The energy has to be climate-friendly, but also affordable”, stressed Winfried Kretschmann.
Cooperation opportunities between Romania and Germany were identified also by Dr. Andre Baumann, State Secretary at the Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Energy Sector of the State of Baden-Württemberg. These are related to wind energy, natural gas, decarbonization and renew of the thermal power plants in the cities, which should use renewable energy for heat production.
”An exchange is very important, because we have similar and, yet different situations in Germany”, stated Baumann.
The Romanian State Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Dan Dragoș Drăgan, underlined the necessity to reinforce the grid and to increase the country’s interconnection capabilities. “This summer we experienced very high prices of electricity, despite all the renewables, nuclear and hydro-potential in Romania, due to the high temperatures and the draught. We are also supplying energy to Moldova and Ukraine and therefore, an increased connection is needed, not only on the Romanian side, but also an interconnected distribution line between Romania and other countries in the Central Europe, to allow the flux of renewable to go in the regions where it is needed“, he explained. Dan Drăgan highlighted several milestones of the Romania’s energy strategy in the coming future, which are the new generation facilities based on hydrogen, offshore generation facilities, development of a decarbonized and digitized grid, phasing off the fossil fuel by 2030 and invited the German companies to be part of this transformation.
The good economic relationships between the two countries were also emphasized by the general manager of AHK Romania, Sebastian Metz, who concluded that “the visit of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and our workshop today, with the participation of German and Romanian companies gives us, as AHK Romania, a further impetus to strengthen the bilateral economic relations between Romania and Baden-Württemberg. The entire topic of energy, including technology, transport and industry as a consumer, offers excellent starting points for this.”
At his turn, the AHK Romania’s President and Managing Director of BASF, Andreas Lier, stressed the importance of the good partnership between Romania and Germany in the global context: “In light of the current geopolitical situation and related to the Antwerp Declaration, according to which the Green Deal has to be complemented by an industrial deal, Romania can play an important role, with its excellent energy footprint. The country has renewable, but also fossil energy in significant quantities. This can be used to attract new investments and power generation local industry, for both transformation and strengthening the competitiveness of the EU.”
The round table was organized on the occasion of a visit paid by the Prime Minister of Baden-Wurttemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, to Romania from 29 September to the 1st October, accompanied by a delegation of about 30 persons.
