15 billion Euros for investments in Croatia's energy sector by 2020

Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor attended the Visegrad Four Summit (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) which was held in Budapest this weekend. Over the three days, national representatives from Romania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia discussed energy-security issues.

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Prime Minister Kosor who attended the Visegrad summit for the first time stated that Croatia was to become a strong player in the energy field in this part of Europe. Kosor also stated that the new Energy Strategy (which was adopted by the government in June 2009 and in Parliament in October 2009) defined some concrete steps of the energy sector in the next few years. The respective Energy Strategy foresees investments of approximately 15 billion Euros into Croatia’s energy sector by 2020. Thus, the investments into energy sector equal two per cent of the annual increase of GDP.

PHOTO: Energetika.NET archive

The money should come from private investors, while the government should supply solid administrative background and overall guidelines for energy sector development. The authors of the Energy Strategy predicted a 3.1 per cent annual increase of energy consumption in Croatia until 2020, whereby the consumption of electricity is to grow by 4.3 per cent and that of natural gas by 4.7 per cent annually.

The representatives of the countries at the Budapest meeting talked also about the Ernestinovo-Pecs power line which is to be set in motion by end of march 2010, about the construction works on LNG terminal which are to be started within the next four years, about a gas pipeline towards Hungary and about investments into renewable energy sources, especially wind power plants.

Economical crisis had slowed down energy projects in Croatia, Kosor said, but had not halted them. As Prime Minister said, although Croatia was not yet an EU member, it was considered as the 28th member state in respect to energy sector.

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