Iohannis on energy reduction: Gov’t coming with a decent saving plan would be welcome

We must be more determined on settling the energy prices, said Romanian President Klaus Iohannis before attending the informal meeting of the European Council in Prague. He proposed again a separation of the gas market from the electricity market.

“With all the sanctions and measures taken so far, a significant decrease in energy prices has not yet been achieved and that means that we must be more determined. I stick with my proposal: to separate the gas market from the electricity market, and I believe that more and more in the Council are of the same opinion. I hope that the Commission will also be convinced that this is one of the measures that can deliver,” the president  told journalists.

Klaus Iohannis added that there is also a need to diversify energy resources in general.

“We have some progress here, but it’s still too little. The Greece-Bulgaria interconnector has started to operate, but the capacity needs to be increased. The capacity of European ports for LNG, for liquefied gas must be increased, and other measures,” Iohannis pointed out.

Asked if the Romanian Government should also come up with a plan to reduce waste and consumption, as other European countries do, the Romanian replied: “I think it wouldn’t hurt to draw up a decent plan – I repeat, no one wants the world to be left in the cold – but a decent saving plan, with a head, with measure, is probably welcome.”

The European Council will also tackle the situation in Ukraine in Prague, with the Romanian president underlining that they will again condemn the annexation by the Russia of Ukrainian territories.

“We will categorically condemn the unrecognized annexations of territories by Russia, but at the same time, I want to expressly welcome the adoption of the eighth package of sanctions, which was approved in the past week’s talks. On the other hand, we will discuss some measures, I hope quite concrete, related to the coming winter, about how can we support Ukraine to get over the coming winter,” president Iohannis said.