Economy Minister highlights Georgia’s EU integration progress at Budapest green energy ministerial

Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili on Tuesday highlighted progress made by Georgia on its path of European integration at the Ministerial Meeting on green energy development in Budapest.

Davitashvili told the event the European Commission’s recommendation for the European Council to grant the country the EU membership candidate status was “historic”.

The Ministry said the official was involved in the event aimed at implementing the agreement on a strategic partnership in green energy development and transmission between the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary. 

In his opening remarks, Davitashvili noted Georgia’s integration into the EU would be “accelerated even more” by participation in events like the Ministerial and cooperating with partners. 

He said economic and energy integration with the EU was “important” for his country and noted the Government was “actively” working to utilise domestic hydro resources. 

Our goal is to export electricity to the EU market. We are also working on the development of renewable energy projects. In addition, our goal is to support the construction of small and medium-sized stations as much as possible. We also launched the so-called Price Mechanism which will help the energy sector to become even more stable”, Davitashvili said.

The Minister also emphasised the importance of the Black Sea submarine cable project, which intends to connect the grids of the South Caucasus and European Union member countries, for regional energy security and sustainable development.

This ambitious initiative serves the idea of becoming a crucial link in the chain of sustainable energy transmission, promoting connectivity and cooperation between our countries. The Black Sea submarine cable project represents an important step towards energy security and environmental sustainability”, Davitashvili told the Ministerial.

He also said use of solar and wind resources was becoming “more and more important” for Georgia in the wake of hydropower development, with a “number of successful projects” already in place.

The Minister said the goal of his Government was to ensure the total energy generated by investors involved in the sector reached “three to four gigawatts”, adding corresponding feasibility studies were “at various stages”.