Romania is hosting a new summit of the Three Seas Initiative (I3M) on Wednesday at the Cotrocen Palace, an event in which Greece will become the 13th member country of this political platform, while Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova will receive the status of associated member states. “Romania is the first I3M country to host the Initiative’s Summit and Business Forum for the second time,” says President Klaus Iohannis.

“The summit is an important event for Romania, gathering the heads of state and government of all 12 participating states (member countries) of the Initiative, as well as representatives of the United States of America, the European Commission and Germany – strategic partners of I3M,” he sent by President Iohannis before the start the summit

The meeting will also be attended by special guests from other countries, including Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, at the level of the head of state, as well as representatives of the EBRD, EIB, OECD, IMF, and the leadership of the World Bank.

“This level of participation confirms the great importance of the Summit and portends significant results. In the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine, it is important that we remain united and continue to commit resources to strategic projects vital to our region that address critical cross-border transportation, energy and digital infrastructure,” President Iohannis said.

On the sidelines of the Summit, on Thursday, September 7, the Romanian government will organize a new I3M business forum under the patronage of President Klaus Iohannis.

On the sidelines of the Summit, on Thursday, September 7, the Romanian government will organize a new I3M business forum under the patronage of President Klaus Iohannis.

• See the program of the Three Seas Initiative summit here

During the work of the Summit, President Klaus Iohannis will present the results of the mandate of Romania at the head of I3M (June 2022 – September 2023), also reflected in the Joint Declaration of the Summit, which will be adopted at the end of the discussions. .

It will become an important reference point for the future activities of I3M, focusing on the directions of action for the development of cross-border interconnections in the field of transport infrastructure, energy and digitalization, as well as for the consolidation and diversification of the financial instruments of the Initiative.

Greece will become the 13th member of I3M. Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova are associated member states

By adopting the Bucharest Declaration, Greece will become the 13th member state of the Initiative, and Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova will receive the status of member states associated with I3M.

• “The President of Romania will emphasize that a year and a half after the beginning of Russia’s brutal and illegal aggression against Ukraine, I3M has confirmed the validity of its concept and the relevance of the implementation of its goals, in the current geopolitical context, this platform of high-level political dialogue has become an important tool for strengthening regional and European stability.
• President Klaus Iohannis will also encourage the development of new tools and partnerships to catalyze investment in I3M’s priority projects, including through the creation of a new investment fund that will continue the fund launched at the Bucharest Summit in 2018, and exploring the most effective ways to create the Initiative’s Innovation Fund.” , This is stated in the press release of Cotroceni.

On the occasion of the Summit, the list of strategic priority projects will also be updated, the first such list was launched on the occasion of the previous Summit in Bucharest.

Romania is the first I3M member country to host the Initiative’s summit for the second time, following the successful one held by the President of Romania in Bucharest on September 17-18, 2018.

During the first Summit in Bucharest, important decisions regarding the future of the Initiative were made, such as:

• approval of the list of main priority interconnection projects in the fields of transport, energy and digital technologies;
• organization of the first business forum of the Three Seas Initiative;
• launching a network of I3M chambers of commerce and industry (by signing the Joint Declaration on the creation of this network);
• initiating the procedure for launching the Investment Fund of the Three Seas Initiative (by signing the Letter of Intent regarding its creation).

Business forum of the “3 seas” initiative.

The business forum of the 3 Seas Initiative – “Investments in a sustainable tomorrow”, organized by the Government of Romania under the high patronage of the President of Romania, will be held on Thursday, September 7, in the Palace of the Parliament and will bring together more than 1,000 businessmen, government officials, experts, representatives of civil society.

• See the agenda of the I3M forum here

Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku will open the business forum, which will be attended by high-ranking officials: President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, co-initiator country 3 Maritime Initiative, Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic, co-initiator country of the Initiative of the Three Seas, President of Latvia Edgars Rinkevičs, the country that hosted last year’s Three Seas Summit and Forum, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda, the country that will host the Three Seas Initiative Summit and Business Forum in 2024.

The special guest of the business forum is John Kerry, the special emissary of the President of the United States of America on climate issues.

The high-level meeting will be accompanied by four panels on priority topics both from the point of view of the European Union and transatlantic relations: energy, transport, digitalization, investments.

The purpose of the I3M business forum is to stimulate investment in infrastructure on the North-South axis and reconfiguration of neighborly relations in the region, especially in the context of numerous and long-lasting violations caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Romania, as a member state of the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, focuses its main strategic priorities in the energy sector – with an emphasis on the green transition and the use of hydrogen as a source of renewable energy – the development of railways and road transport networks, as well as the challenges of the future in terms of digitalization in the field of cyber security and artificial intelligence implementation security.

What is the 3 Seas Initiative?

The Three Seas Initiative (Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea) was conceived as a flexible and informal political platform at the presidential level covering 12 (soon to be 13) EU Member States located between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia) . , the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia).

I3M member countries cover 28% of the EU’s territory, 22% of the Union’s population (114 million), but account for only 10% of European GDP. The European structural and investment funds finance the development of interconnection and infrastructure in the region, and 5 of the 9 corridors covered by the European Connectivity Facility cross the territory of the I3M member states. However, there is a deficit in terms of development and regional relations, especially in relation to the north-south axis of the European continent, which also negatively affects the economic development of the states of the region.

At the Bucharest Summit in September 2018, the European Commission, represented at the level of the President, and Germany, as well as European and international financial institutions, participated as partners for the first time.