Against the current background of Romania’s security policies, but also in the context of European green initiatives and new climate targets, the issue of energy policies in Romania has a major impact on the country as an investment location. Skillfully traversing the energy transition, while maintaining Romania’s industrial investment advantages, is a priority for AHK Romania. In this sense, AHK Romania elaborated the White-Paper “Modeling the energy transition for the Romanian industry”.
On June 30, 2022, AHK Romania organized the launch event of this strategic document which is the result of the long work of the Working Group for Energy and the Chemical Industry. For the first time, political decision-makers, industry and energy experts were brought under the neutral umbrella of the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry to mark opportunities and analyze the challenges posed by the new European agreements in the field of sustainability and energy transition.
“The uniqueness of this White Paper consists in approaching the current energy paradigm from a double perspective – it recommends policies for the energy transition, focusing on maintaining Romania’s industrial competitiveness. The solutions proposed by AHK Romania experts are described in stages, in the short, medium and long term, and the ultimate goal is our commitment to support an optimal governance model for the Romanian industry “, said Sebastian Metz, General Manager of AHK Romania, at the end of the meeting.
AHK believes that in order to cope with the current geopolitical situation, the focus of existing policies should reside in near-term solutions, with an emphasis on ensuring energy security of supply, as affordable as possible.
“Secondly, authorities should concentrate on optimizing or complementing its already de[1]ployed support schemes in order to ensure the economic viability of all actors on the energy supply chain, including the end consumer. Regarding the large industry, Romania should exploit all possibilities under the EC RePowerEU Communication that can offer relief for companies facing liquidity needs due to current high energy prices, regardless of their size, based on the guidelines on rescue and restructuring.
At the same time, AHK recommends that Romania should be open to using all its available energy resources to alleviate the hardship on the industry as well as its vulnerable consumers. AHK underlines that Romania needs a stop gap solution until it can move forward with its climate ambitions, even more so considering. Progress towards net zero ambitions in Europe will bring down gas use and imports over time, but today’s crisis raises specific questions about imports from Russia and what policy makers and consumers can do to lower them. AHK proposes to urgently reduce red tape, adapt legislation and improve cooperation with companies exploiting natural gas to be in the position to supply neighboring countries with the much-needed gas.
The offshore law has to be adopted as soon as possible, till half of 2022, in order to allow Romania to plan the energy transition based on gas. This law gives the unique opportunity for Romania to be able to be independent of the energy primary resources. There is also a big advantage for the indus[1]try producing in Romania based on reliable resources at an affordable price. Nevertheless, the energy HUB in Romania will be able to develop further, maybe also for energy export in Europe which is now highly dependent on Russian gas and has for the next decade no real alternative. Romania should use its natural gas reserves as an edge in the energy transition process and emerge as an energy hub from the next 5 to 10 years.”
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