The Territorial Ministerial Meeting on Energy and Interconnectivity in Southeast Europe, with the participation of Greece, Serbia, Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria.
The meeting was attended by Minister of Environment and Energy, Mr. Stavros Papastavrou, the Minister of Energy of Serbia, Ms Dubravka Handanović, the Minister of Energy and Minerals of North Macedonia, Ms Sanja Bozinovska, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Mr. Nikos Tsafos, the Serbian Deputy Minister of Energy, Minerals and Petroleum, Saša Koković, the Serbian Deputy Minister of Electricity and Minerals, Radoš Popadić, and the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Energy, Kiril Temelkov.
Also in attendance were the CEO of DESFAka Maria Sferuzza, the President of DESFA, Mr. Paschalis Bouchoris, and the President and CEO of ADMIE, Mr Manousos Manousakis, as well as the heads of the relevant TSOs of Serbia, North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
As stated by the Ministry of Energy, during the proceedings, participants exchanged views on the challenges of European and regional energy security, the strengthening of interconnections and energy cooperation in the region, as well as the need to accelerate strategic energy infrastructure.
They also decided to institutionalize the Quadrilateral Ministerial, with the next meeting to take place in Serbia in September.
After the meeting, Papastavrou made the following statement. Energy builds bridges of stability and cooperation. Today’s meeting of the Energy Ministers of Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia and Bulgaria confirmed that energy security and regional cooperation is a priority for all of us. Greece is playing a leading role in the new European architecture with projects of strategic importance. Infrastructure, interconnections, market coupling, the Direct Corridor, projects that enhance security of supply, strengthen geopolitical stability and create conditions for growth in the region. Today we agreed to expand the Vertical Corridor with North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as to institutionalize cooperation between the four states. The next meeting will take place in September in Belgrade. With a common vision, with a plan, energy becomes a force for convergence and prosperity in the region.”
Serbia’s Minister of Energy, Ms. Dubravka Handanović, underlined: “The regional ministerial meeting in Athens was very good and productive and I am grateful to the minister. Mr. Papastavrou for organizing it. It is very important to discuss the improvement of our interconnections and connectivity in the region. The goal is to complete the interconnecting gas pipeline Serbia – North Macedonia by the end of 2027. We are in the process of securing zoning conditions for both the interconnection and the northern part of the gas pipeline network to Vranje. Our part will have a capacity of one and a half billion cubic metres. Serbia plans to invest €1.2 billion in the coming years in gas infrastructure and in strengthening the pipelines passing through our country, as envisaged in the plan “Serbia 2030-2035. Serbia is the first country among the candidate countries to meet the requirements for coupling with the European Union’s electricity market. We have harmonized our regulatory framework and are awaiting confirmation from the European Commission. Greece and Bulgaria are also interested in market coupling, as Member States of the European Union and as countries linked to the transmission systems with which we will be integrated. We need support in Brussels to complete these procedures as soon as possible. The next meeting will take place in Belgrade in the autumn. We are happy to be the hosts and will consider inviting other countries.”
North Macedonia’s Minister of Energy and Minerals, Ms Sanja Bozinovska, said: “First of all, I would like to thank the Greek minister for this opportunity. First of all, I would like to thank the President of the Republic of Bulgaria for giving me the opportunity to thank the President of the Republic of Bulgaria for this opportunity. Although two countries are members of the European Union and the other two are not, I think we all agreed that regional cooperation is very important. We discussed the projects that each country is working on. There are common projects that we are implementing together. We talked about the projects that each country has with Bulgaria, with Serbia and with Greece. North Macedonia is working on the interconnection with Greece. Yesterday we published the tender for Serbia. So by the end of next year we will be ready and the Greece-North Macedonia-Serbia interconnection will be operational. Then we discussed even greater regional cooperation. We agreed to hold a next meeting. I think it is an excellent opportunity to sit together in this way and all the participants in the energy sector expressing their interest and saying that we need to cooperate even more.
We agreed that the next meeting should be held in Belgrade, then in Skopje and then in Sofia. So we will have regular meetings of this type.”
Bulgarian State Minister of Energy Kiril Temelkov said: “I am really very happy to be here, following the invitation of Minister Papastavrou. We are here together with our colleagues from North Macedonia and Serbia. We discussed at length the integration of energy infrastructure and the integration of markets between our countries and we came to the conclusion that all these countries need to develop very close relations and cooperate closely in the development of our energy systems, because ultimately this is the way to be much more secure, much more reliable in our relations with each other and to ensure reliability to our citizens. We have identified really very important projects that we can continue to develop in the region. Interconnectivity is not only about Bulgaria and Greece. We are happy that we have a very good relationship and a very good interconnection between our two countries. But we realised that together with our neighbours, North Macedonia and Serbia, we can extend this cooperation even further. So thank you to all participants. Our countries will continue to cooperate intensively, because this is for the benefit of our citizens, which is precisely our main task.”
