{"id":417867,"date":"2025-02-04T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/04\/crisi-energetica-moldova-transnistria-ue\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T15:34:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T14:34:01","slug":"energy-crisis-in-moldova-and-transnistria-eu-unveils-250-million-package-to-counter-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/04\/energy-crisis-in-moldova-and-transnistria-eu-unveils-250-million-package-to-counter-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy crisis in Moldova and Transnistria: EU unveils 250-million package to counter Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0A proxy energy war between Russia and the EU is underway in the Republic of Moldova. After the decision by Kyiv to\u00a0stop<\/a>\u00a0the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, Gazprom unilaterally cut off, without exploiting alternative routes such as the Trans-Balkan pipeline, supplies to Transnistria<\/strong>, a Russophile breakaway state\u00a0of Moldova that self-proclaimed itself a republic in 1990, leaving the region’s more than 350,000 inhabitants without light and heat. After an initial emergency package of 30 million announced last Jan. 27, Brussels and Chisinau agreed today (Feb. 4) on a two-year strategy<\/a> that, in addition to curbing the soaring prices of Moldovan citizens’ bills, would, in the long run, allow the former Soviet republic to break free from Kremlin energy blackmail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At a joint press conference in the Moldovan capital, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos and Moldova’s President Maia Sandu announced a total \u20ac250 million\u00a0package for 2025<\/strong> to support the EU candidate country, 100 million of which will be in place by mid-April. Brussels has also put \u20ac60 million on the table for Transnistria, provided the autonomous region adopts several\u00a0measures on fundamental freedoms and human rights.<\/p>\n

The strategy that Kos and Sandu outlined has the\u00a0two-fold objective of “decoupling Moldova from the insecurities of Russian supply of energy and fully integrating it in the EU energy market<\/strong>,” the Enlargement Commissioner said, thus finally freeing\u00a0the country\u00a0from Moscow’s undue interference. “Moldova has undergone\u00a0many tests, but we have never been alone. The Kremlin continues to use energy as a weapon of blackmail. With the EU’s support, we will overcome this crisis and strengthen the country’s energy security,” said\u00a0the pro-European Sandu. As of 2022, the Moldovan electricity system has been connected to the European continental power grid. On Dec. 1, 2024, export capacity from the EU to Ukraine and Moldova was increased from 1.7 to 2.1 GW, including 315 MW for Chisinau.<\/p>\n

In the short term, the package will support\u00a0the energy costs of <\/strong><\/b>Moldavians on the Right Bank of the Dniester River (separating the Republic of Moldova from Transnistria). The European Commission calculates that the 250 million will allow to compensate all excess electricity costs for all households for up to 110 kWh every month until Dec. 31, 2025.\u00a0 It will also include\u00a0a\u00a0fund to alleviate the energy bills of the most exposed households<\/strong> and compensate for all the increase in electricity costs for kindergartens, schools, and hospitals. An additional \u20ac15 million\u00a0of funding will go to supporting the energy bills of agro-food and manufacturing companies.<\/p>\n

In addition, through the mobilization of international financial institutions, additional financing of 50 million euros will be available for sustainable investments in energy efficiency projects by local public authorities, households, and small and medium-sized enterprises.<\/p>\n

In the long run, EU support should\u00a0enable Moldova to improve its energy security through\u00a0investments and energy transition reforms<\/strong><\/b> and to “ensure the full phase-out\u00a0\u00a0of Russian supply of\u00a0energy resources<\/strong><\/b>.” Investments and reforms will be <\/b>included in the Reform Agenda under the\u00a0Moldova Growth Plan and will be implemented until the end of 2026. Commissioner Kos also confirmed the \u20ac1.8 billion growth plan for Moldova, with the first funds coming this year. Reiterating the European commitment to Moldova’s accession to the EU, she emphasized that the process could be completed within the term of the current Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos unveiled a two-year strategy in Chisinau to “free Moldova from Russian energy supplies and fully integrate it into the EU energy market.” “The Kremlin continues to use energy as a weapon of blackmail,” President Sandu denounces<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":417861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[27094,25866,29436,28942,25803,27093],"class_list":["post-417867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-energy-en","tag-maia-sandu-en","tag-marta-kos-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-transnistria-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417867"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417881,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417867\/revisions\/417881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}