Moldova Joins EU’s CESEC Gas Connectivity Initiative

Moldova has joined the high-level group of CESEC, the gas connectivity initiative of the European Commission for central-eastern and southeastern Europe.

“On 12 October, the Vice-President in charge of the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, witnessed the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding and its Action Plan by the Prime Minister of Moldova Valeriu Strelet”, the Commission said in a statement.

The Commission set up CESEC high-level group in February to give a boost to diversification of gas routes and supply as well as gas market integration in the region.

Work under the Central-Eastern and South-Eastern European Gas Connectivity (CESEC) initiative is focused on building new gas pipelines and making the best use of existing infrastructure.

EU members Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are part of the CESEC high-level group. Non-EU Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and now Moldova are also members of the group.

Moldova will start building a pipeline that will carry Romanian natural gas to its capital city of Chisinau next spring in a bid to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, a Moldovan government official said last week.