The European Union supports the Black Sea submarine cable project, which is a huge investment and hopefully will significantly change the power generation and also the electricity transmission between the South Caucasus and the European Union, said the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia Pawel Herczynski at the quadrilateral meeting of Georgia, Romania, Azerbaijan and Hungary regarding the Black Sea submarine cable project.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the meeting held in Tbilisi, in which high-ranking officials of the governments of Georgia, Romania, Azerbaijan and Hungary participated, was opened by the Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili.

According to the Ministry, Hungarian Minister of Trade and Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó, Director of Azerbaijan's Renewable Energy Agency Javid Abdulaev and Romanian Energy Ministry State Secretary George Niculescu also participated in the event.

"The Black Sea cable is a very big project that connects, on the one hand, Georgia and Azerbaijan, on the other hand, Romania and Hungary. The European Union supports this project and participates in it as an observer. We are talking about a huge investment that will hopefully significantly change electricity generation and also electricity transmission between the South Caucasus and the EU. The European Union strongly supports this project and we want this project to have a regional scale. We sincerely hope that in a few years the South Caucasus will become a very important source of energy for the European Union. It will take some time, because we are talking about a huge project, but we would like it to be implemented as soon as possible," said Pawel Herczynski.

The Black Sea submarine cable project will be implemented with the support of the Georgian government and the cooperation of the Georgian and Romanian transmission system operators "Georgian State Electric System" and "Transelectrica". On December 17, 2022, a strategic cooperation agreement was signed between the governments of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary on the development and transmission of green energy. One of the important issues of the agreement was the Black Sea submarine cable project - once the project is implemented, a 1,195-kilometer long cable will be connected to Romania (1,100 km underwater and 95 km land cable), which will allow the countries of the South Caucasus and Romania, to take advantage of the expanded export opportunities and conduct trade taking into account the hourly prices of the electricity market.

At this stage, "Georgian State Electric System" consulting company CESI is carrying out a technical-economic study of the project. In the future, within the framework of the project, environmental and social impact assessment and geophysical and geotechnical studies of the Black Sea bed will also be carried out. Through them, the possibilities and best ways of practical implementation of the project will be determined. The committee will review a presentation prepared by CESI outlining ongoing and planned activities within the feasibility study.

*Pawel Herczynski's quotes in the article have been double-translated from Georgian and wordings may be inaccurate.

source: 1TV