site.btaEnergy Minister to Meet US, Hungary, and Romania Officials for Bilateral Talks in Bucharest

Caretaker Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov will participate in the fifth Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC) ministerial meeting, the Energy Ministry said on Tuesday.

The forum in Bucharest gathers partners from European nations and the United States to deliberate on strategies for achieving shared energy objectives. Discussions will focus on enhancing industry security, accelerating decarbonization, and diversifying supply sources.

The P-TECC initiative unites public and private sector leaders from 24 Central and Eastern European countries, serving as a platform for energy cooperation at the ministerial level.

Minister Malinov will engage in discussions with Andrew Light, Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs. He also has bilateral meetings scheduled with Hungary Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja.

The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) signed an agreement with Bulgaria's Electricity System Operator (ESO) in Sofia on Monday for a USD 1.5 million grant to finance a feasibility study for building an East-West Energy Corridor. The ESO-initiated project is aimed to connect the electricity transmission systems of Turkiye, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro, with an option to bring Italy into the scheme as well. The project stipulates the building of four new transmission lines to increase the transmission capacity to Romania, Greece, Turkiye and the Republic of North Macedonia by more than 2,000 MW.