Christian Danielsson Director General of the DG NEAR of the European Commission visited the thermal power plant Nikola Tesla in Obrenovac together with Serbian Minister of Energy Aleksandar Antic
While in Obrenovac, Danielsson said that the European Union has financially supported energy sector in Serbia with EUR500 million over the past 17 years.
As one of the important projects he mentioned the construction of gas inter-connector with Bulgaria aimed at diversifying Serbia’s gas supply and increasing its energy security.
Minister Antic said that Serbia planned to invest EUR1 billion over the next decade in projects dealing with environment, adding that Serbia expected the EU to support it in that endeavour.
He thanked Danielsson for European Commission’s support in building the gas inter-connector with Bulgaria and added that Serbia had made progress in meeting the opening criteria for the energy chapter.
As one of the successful outcomes, he cited the instalment of precipitation filters at the Nikola Tesla thermal power plant in Obrenovac aimed at reducing hazardous gases. He added that plans to construct the desulphurisation facility, worth EUR200 million, were also being drawn up.
EPS Managing Director Milorad Grcic assessed cooperation between Serbia and the EU in the areas of energy in the past decade as very good.
According to EPS data, the European Union has allocated slightly less that EUR60 million of IPA money for projects such as the instalment of precipitation filters, waste water treatment, pollutant emission measurement and safe ash disposal.
