EU to provide Moldova with 250 million euros to support energy security

The European Union will provide Moldova with 250 million euros (6.3 billion Kč) this year. The money is intended to help the country pay its energy bills and build energy resilience. The European Commission (EC) said today on its website that Moldova depends on “unreliable supplies from Russia.” The supply cuts are the result of a dispute over debt to the Russian supplier, which Moldova does not recognise.

The funds are part of a two-year EU strategy. Its aim is to “free Moldova from uncertainty surrounding Russian energy supplies and fully integrate it into the EU energy market,” the Commission said.

The EU will provide the Eastern European country with 100 million euros by mid-April. It will also make 60 million euros available to people in the separatist region of Transnistria, which is backed by Moscow. The funding is conditional on the adoption of measures concerning “fundamental freedoms and human rights.”

Authorities in Transnistria stopped cutting off electricity to local residents on Monday. They were able to do so thanks to the resumption of natural gas supplies, paid for with emergency EU support announced in late January, Reuters reported. Tens of thousands of people there had been without gas or heating since 1 January, after Russian state-owned supplier Gazprom halted gas exports to the region. It cited unpaid Moldovan debt of 709 million dollars (17.3 billion Kč) as the reason. Chisinau does not recognise the debt.