One of the oldest wooden churches in Romania, saved by the project „Ambulance for monuments”
One of the oldest wooden churches in Romania, located in Botoșani county, was saved by the „Ambulance for monuments” project. As reported by RRA correspondent Gina Poenaru, the „Saint Dimitrie” church in Ionășeni was built in 234 by an ancestor of Dragoș Vodă and underwent major repairs almost two centuries ago. During the last month, the Actum Association changed the shingle covering of the church, and for 4 weeks intense work took place, in which three series of volunteers participated, in total more than 60 students from different faculties, along with seven craftsmen and members of the local community
Romania and Serbia signed the memorandum regarding the construction of the gas interconnector between the two countries
Romania and Serbia signed the memorandum regarding the construction of the gas interconnector between the two countries. Through this investment, Romania will obtain two benefits: a more competitive market, which will bring the lowest price to consumers, energy security and diversification of supply sources, and the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, also added that Romania positions itself as a regional leader in the energy sector and provider of geopolitical stability. He also emphasized that coal-fired energy production cannot be replaced by photovoltaic panels or wind power plants, but by gas-fired production.
After 50 years of collaboration in the management of the largest hydropower plants of the two countries, Romania and Serbia are expanding their collaboration in the energy field starting today, as the Serbian Minister of Energy and Mines also says. It is about connecting the national natural gas transmission systems of the two states.
Dubravka Đedović Handanović: Serbia and Romania have already established extraordinary economic and political relations, but today’s meeting goes even further in our cooperation, a cooperation that has already lasted for five decades and is an important cornerstone for energy security for our users. By signing this memorandum, today we start a new stage of our collaboration in the energy sector.
The project is an investment of almost 100 million euros that each state will make on its territory, the scope and costs being much higher in Romania.
Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Energy: Today we marked the signing of this memorandum aimed at starting this gas interconnector, we call it Arad-Mokrin, but in fact it is Petrovaselo to Comloșu Mare, on the Romanian side. It means somewhere around 85 kilometers, estimated costs somewhere around 80 million euros at today’s prices, work that Transgaz is considering and also the Serbian side is considering. It’s true, on the Serbian side it’s a work of a much smaller scale and with much lower costs. We want to operationalize this interconnector, to put it into operation at the level of 2028 at the latest.
Sebastian Burduja also spoke about the importance of the new interconnector, especially in the context of natural gas exploitation in the Neptun Deep perimeter.
Sebastian Burduja: Why is the connector important? On the one hand, for the energy security of the region, and of Romania, and Serbia, the more routes you have, the higher level of security you have in supply and, on the other hand, to have a price as lower, a fair price for the final gas consumer in Romania. And it is also about giving the opportunity to the Romanian gas that we exploit and will exploit even more from 2027, after the gas from the Neptun Deep permit from the Black Sea will arrive, to offer it a market in Serbia as well.
In the press conference that followed the signing of the memorandum, the energy minister stated that Romania is looking for technical arguments to present to the European Commission so as not to close coal-fired production capacities before replacing them with non-polluting solutions.
Sebastian Burduja: As are the terms assumed in Romania in the PNRR, in the decarbonization law, but also in the restructuring plan at the Oltenia Energy Complex and in the plan to close the activity at Valea Jiului, we are talking about 2032 as the last year. Based on an adequacy study that we expect from Transelectrica, we will be able to have the necessary technical arguments for a possible delay of these terms in our dialogue with the European Commission, primarily in Gorj, where, as you well know, there is an important electricity production , 10-15% of Romania’s energy production depending from one day to the next. It is important not to close the coal groups without putting something in place. There needs to be a correlation between the shutdown of coal-fired units and the commissioning of gas-fired units, because that actually means production in the strip. You cannot replace coal with photovoltaic panels or wind farms.
The Minister also stated that solutions are being sought to support the population with very low incomes, as well as economic agents, after April 1, 2025, when the capping of energy prices will be eliminated.
The threshold of one billion packages collected through the guarantee-return system has been reached (Minister of the Environment)
The threshold of one billion packages collected through the guarantee-return system has been reached, the Minister of the Environment announces in a post on the Internet. Mircea Fechet also states that plastic packaging is the most, and currently, for the first time after the Revolution, the big PET processors no longer import this material, as the SGR provides enough raw material. The target for this year is 3.2 billion recycled packaging, and the minister is optimistic because, he says, the response of the Romanians is amazing and he declares himself grateful and proud for everyone’s determination and effort./aionita
