On Tuesday, 4 February, the European Commission and Moldova agreed on a comprehensive two-year strategy for the country’s energy independence and resilience.
“With [the] EU’s support, we will overcome this crisis”, Moldovan President Maia Sandu happily declared during a press conference with Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos in Chișinău.
Under this strategy, the [amount of] support will total €250 million for 2025, including €100 million that the EU will provide by mid-April and €30 million that was previously announced in January (see EUROPE 13566/2).
An additional offer of €60 million is being made available to the inhabitants of the Transnistrian region subject to conditions, such as measures concerning fundamental freedoms and human rights. The separatist region’s inhabitants were left in the cold in January after Gazprom stopped delivering energy.
In the short term, the package will support Moldovan consumers facing price hikes by making it possible to offset all excess electricity costs for all households up to 110 kWh per month until 31 December 2025.
It also includes a €25 million hardship fund to reduce the most vulnerable households’ energy bills and [funding] to offset the entirety of the increase in social institutions’ electricity bills up to €20 million.
Furthermore, agri-food and manufacturing companies will receive €15 million in aid for their energy bills.
Likewise, €50 million in additional funding will be provided—through the mobilisation of international financial institutions—for readily available or ‘quick to absorb’ investments in energy efficiency projects by local public authorities, households, and SMEs.
In the longer term, the European Commission and international partners will finance actions and investments aiming to strengthen the country’s energy resilience and independence as well as support for reducing energy costs for all Moldovans. These actions will be included in the reform agenda in Moldova’s growth plan and will be implemented until the end of 2026.
Beyond EU support, Ms Sandu explained that her country was taking steps to become energy independent. These steps notably include connecting the EU’s electricity grid to Moldova’s, developing renewable energies, and even investing in improving buildings’ energy efficiency.
See the letter of intent: https://aeur.eu/f/fcj
Moving forward in the accession process. The Moldovan president also explained that her country wanted to “complete the accession negotiations during the current European Commission’s mandate”, i.e. by the end of 2029. This goal is “possible”, according to Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos. She believed that an initial ‘cluster’ of EU accession negotiation chapters could be opened in the spring and that two others were being prepared.
The EU and Moldova are likewise working to abolish ‘roaming’ charges by the end of the year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)