On 10 May, Moldova’s President Nicolae Timofti and his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu agreed in Bucharest to accelerate the development of energy projects already established, including Iasi-Ungheni (north-east country) gas pipeline.
“We had discussions on how we can contribute to the binding of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union, via Romania, as the border country for the Republic of Moldova, and we decided together to accelerate the development of the already established projects,” Basescu said in a joint statement with Timofti at Cotroceni Palace.
The projects include the Iasi - Ungheni gas pipeline, Falciu, Gotesti and Suceava Balti power lines, installation of optical fiber between Isaccea and Chisinau, Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau railway upgrading, building bridges over the Prut and many other projects. “Extremely important is that the gas pipeline to link the gas system of Romania to that of the Republic of Moldova is partially funded by the EU, going that the two countries will bring their own contribution to the project,” the joint statement read. Basescu believes construction of Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline might be completed in 2014. Concerning the interconnection of the energetic infrastructures of Moldova to those of Romania, he said that it is an important project is the construction of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline that might be completed around 2014.
“At this moment, being financially backed by the European Union we try to interconnect the energetic infrastructures of the Republic of Moldova to those of Romania and implicitly of the EU. We have various projects and I would not want to limit ourselves only to the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline, because we rely on the power lines Falciu-Golesti and Suceava-Balti - these are new electric lines, for 400 kW, to be able to make a more rapid and better transfer of energy.