Virgilijus Poderys, Chair of the Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee of the Baltic Assembly and Chair of the Seimas Committee on Economics, gave an overview of the work carried out over the last year and noted that in 2018 parliamentarians of the three Baltic States paid particular attention to the synchronisation of the Baltic power grids with the Continental European Network and desynchronising from the Russian grid. The members of the BA Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee take the view that it was time to begin technical implementation of the project.
“The political declarations are over giving way to the technical implementation of the project. We pointed out to our ministries that it was crucial to raise public awareness so that our society understood what the process of synchronisation and desynchronization means and what benefits it brings to society,” Virgilijus Poderys said.
The Chair of the Committee took note that Committee members were also in favour of developing and coordinating a regional gas market.
Baltic parliamentarians emphasized the importance of trade relations in the electricity market with third countries. “We call on our ministries to ensure level playing field in trade with third countries. As third countries can currently trade freely and make use of the liberal conditions in our countries, the same must be guaranteed for our own traders,” Mr Poderys stressed.
Members of the Baltic Assembly also believed it was crucial to ensure the highest nuclear safety and security standards in the Astravyets Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently under construction in Belarus.
Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, Lithuanian Minister of Energy, introduced to the members of the Baltic Assembly the progress achieved in synchronising the Lithuanian power grids with those of Western Europe, and talked about the projects in the regional common gas market, which have already been implemented or which are still in progress.
The Baltic Assembly was established in Tallinn on 8 November 1991 as an international organisation for the cooperation among the Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian parliaments.
