On Tuesday, August 30, at the Baltic Sea Energy Security Summit in Denmark an agreement was signed on closer cooperation in the field of energy in order to end dependence on Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible, while promoting climate neutrality in the European Union (EU).

The summit was attended by President of European Commission Urzula von der Leyen, Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuanian President Gitans Nausėda, Danish Prime Minister Mete Frederiksen, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marina, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Moraveckis, as well as the  leaders of the respective ministries and transmission system operators in the Baltic sea region. The status of EU Common Interest was granted to the Latvian-Estonian joint offshore wind farm ELWIND, which will allow it to attract EU funding in the future course of the project.

During the summit, the leaders of the Baltic Sea countries also signed the Marienborg Declaration, which envisages increasing the amount of fuel imported by sea, including liquefied natural gas and liquefied biogas, developing offshore wind energy production in the Baltic Sea region, as well as exploring the development possibilities of joint cross-border renewable energy projects. The leaders also agreed to strengthen cooperation at the political level between the member states of the Baltic Sea region in the field of energy security, including accelerating the supply of renewable energy resources.

Photo: Dainius Kreivys, Minister for Energy of Lithuania, Eryk Kłossowski, President & CEO, PSE (Poland), Gunta Jēkabsone, Chairperson, Augstsprieguma tīkls (Latvia), Krišjānis Kariņš, Prime Minister of Latvia, Mateusz Jakub Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland, Lotta Medelius-Bredhe, President & CEO, Svenska Kraftnät (Sweden) and Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy at the round table discussion in the second part of the summit

"Our joint dependence on Russian energy resources must be stopped. This can be done by everyone working together and cooperating - in creating interconnections, developing renewable energy projects, as well as by improving laws at the national and European level, so that new projects in the field of energy can be implemented faster," emphasized K. Kariņš after the summit.

In the discussion panel at the summit the chairperson of the board of the Latvian transmission system operator JSC "Augstsprieguma tīkls" Gunta Jēkabsone stated that it is necessary to work on the creation of new interconnections, especially on the creation of the connection between Latvia and Gotland, as well as to review the plans for the synchronization of the Baltics with Europe. She emphasized that this summer's high electricity prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine proved that the Baltic energy market is vulnerable and that natural gas supplies have proven to be undiversified. On the other hand, the creation of new interconnections will promote both the development of offshore wind farms and the increase of the amount of renewable energy in the overall European energy balance, thus achieving the European climate goals and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Documents: Marienborg Declaration