President Klaus Iohannis stated, on Tuesday, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, that it is good the energy mix is decided at the level of each European country, showing that Romania will extend the capacity of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant and probably in a relatively short time frame there will be small, modular nuclear power plants.

"It's a known matter and I believe that it is good that the energy mix is at the national decision, so each state decides what kind of energy mix it promotes and uses to satisfy the needs of the population and the national economy. We, in Romania, have decided to invest also in renewable energy, but also in civilian nuclear energy, and we will do this, we will extend the capacity of the Cernavoda Power Plant, probably in a relatively short time frame we will have small, modular nuclear plants, which can be used to fulfill the needs of the energy grid. At the same time, through the PNRR [National Plan for Recovery and Resilience], green energy is financed, we will have renewables and certainly we will have a higher and higher production in hydrogen. If other states have other approaches, we respect this, I don't believe that it would be useful for the energy mix to be established at the European level and become mandatory, because each state has a national interest and has national opportunities, some have more wind, some have more hydro energy, others prefer to invest in nuclear, but it is important to have a powerful European energy market, to have energy available at prices established in an intelligent and transparent manner, so that we don't have a repeat of the situation we are in now, when the strong dependency on a single supplier practically brought us to an energy crisis," said Iohannis, during the joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

The Belgian official said that his country took the decision to extend the functioning of nuclear power plants.

He added that the situation called for diversification, as much as possible, and even deliberate choices to disconnect from Russia, also addressing discontent with the rate of progress, saying that the application of such a strategy takes time and must be made step by step, at the same time emphasizing that the impact of disconnecting from energy sources from Russia will be very strong on the Russian economy.

The Belgian official also said that at the European level, the nuclear energy factor is not ignored, but part of the mix, and investments will focus on smaller, modular nuclear units. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)