EU to Provide Moldova with €250 Million for Energy Support, Additional €60 Million for Transnistria
The European Commission and Moldova have agreed on a two-year comprehensive strategy for Moldova's energy independence and resilience, under which the country will receive €250 million from the EU in 2025, the European Commission reports on its website.
The strategy has a dual goal: to separate Moldova from unstable Russian energy supplies and to fully integrate it into the EU energy market.
According to the strategy, total support to Moldova in 2025 will amount to €250 million, of which €100 million will be provided by mid-April.
In addition to this total support, under the same strategy, €60 million of assistance is proposed for the population of the Transnistrian region of Moldova, subject to certain conditions.
In the short term, the overall package will support Moldovan consumers facing sharp price increases on the Right Bank. It will compensate all excess electricity costs for all households up to 110 kWh per month until 31 December 2025.
The package will also include a hardship fund to help ease electricity bills for the most vulnerable households and will cover the full increase in electricity costs for social institutions, including kindergartens, schools and hospitals.
Additional funding of €15 million will be provided to support electricity bills for agri-food and industrial enterprises.
In addition, through the mobilisation of international financial institutions, an additional €50 million will be made available for sustainable investment in energy efficiency projects by local authorities, households and small and medium-sized businesses.
The strategy also includes €60 million in funding for more than 350,000 people in the Transnistrian region who were left without heating in January after Gazprom cut off gas supplies.
This support is conditional on steps being taken to improve fundamental freedoms and human rights in the Transnistrian region.
In the long term, EU support will allow Moldova to improve its energy security through investments and reforms for energy transition and to ensure a complete phase-out of Russian energy supplies.
As previously reported by The Gaze, the European Union has allocated 30 million euros to Moldova for the purchase of gas to meet the country's needs in the winter.
On 28 December, Russia's Gazprom announced that it was cutting off gas supplies to Moldova because of the country's alleged ‘debts’.