Romania must accelerate its competitiveness in the electricity market, both economically and industrially, Mihaela Frasineanu, state adviser with the Prime Minister's Chancellery, told an energy conference on Wednesday.

'We have seen this year, more than ever, the overlap between climate change and geopolitical instability and I believe that we are still not fully aware or adequately prepared. Despite the warnings issued by the National Meteorological Administration regarding the impact of increasingly high temperatures and increasingly intense hydrometeorological phenomena, perhaps specialists are somewhat aware of this, but at national level we are not prepared to address the impact of these climate changes. If we are to talk about such a committee and the entity known as the Romanian Government, I believe the Government's role is to provide coherent public policies and the financial framework or the most accessible means of using national and European funds. If we are to talk about the first part, namely public policies, I consider the adoption of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Change Plan - PNIESC - to be extremely relevant. This should be our guiding light when it comes to how we address the effects of climate change, particularly in the electricity sector,' Frasineanu said.

The Government representative added that along each energy distribution chain, 'we need to see how we can combine the mix in a way that is as well adapted as possible to Romania's physical and geographical needs and to the needs of the population and economic operators, together with all types of investment.'

'Following this PNIESC, which must be our guiding light also in terms of how European policies will have to be transposed into national legislation and into the strategies and action plans that Romania needs to have, we are talking first and foremost about competitiveness. We are not yet competitive in this electricity market, we are not yet competitive economically or industrially, and this is something we need to accelerate. So this must be a second area of action in which we understand how we can become competitive. First of all, in Romania we need to be competitive at individual level, we need to be competitive at sector level, at industry level, at the level of economic operators and competitive in international relations. Then we must be able to take our needs to the European level, to the level of the European Union and to the international level. This is the role of economic diplomacy, energy diplomacy and diplomacy of any kind,' Mihaela Frasineanu also said.

Specialists and decision-makers from the energy and environment sectors are attending the opening conference of Energy Expo 2026 on Wednesday. The event will take place on 24 and 25 September at the Romaero site. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)