President Iohannis to attend Sofia Summit of Three Seas Initiative, Thursday through Friday

President Klaus Iohannis will participate, Thursday through Friday, in the sixth Summit of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI), organized in Bulgaria, the Presidential Administration announced. According to the quoted source, the high-level event in Sofia marks the resumption of the Summit's activities face-to-face, including the 3SI Business Forum (at its third edition), after the 2020 Virtual Summit in Tallinn, organized under restrictive conditions COVID-19 pandemic. The Presidential Administration shows that this year's summit represents a new step in the process of consolidating 3SI initiated by the substantive decisions taken at the Summit hosted in Bucharest by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, in September 2018, which marked the Initiative reaching political maturity and its endowment with the necessary tools to achieve the objectives of the Initiative. The meeting in Bulgaria will focus on assessing progress, focusing on the implementation of the list of priority strategic interconnection projects agreed at the Bucharest Summit, which was subsequently completed, as well as on the functioning of the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund, in which Romania, through EximBank, and Poland, through the Development Bank (BGK), are founding states. Decisions on landmarks for the future development of the Initiative will also be discussed and taken. "In his speech, President Klaus Iohannis will analyze the developments that have taken place since the previous Summit, will emphasize the importance of implementing priority strategic interconnection projects, focusing on projects of high interest to Romania, such as Rail2Sea and Via Carpathia, and will highlight their essential relevance for the objective of the Initiative for sustainable economic development and for building the strategic resilience of the participating states' economies, including in the context of the post-pandemic economic recovery efforts," states the Presidential Administration. Along with the leaders of the countries participating in the 3SI, participating this year's Summit, as partners of the Initiative, will be the United States, Germany and the European Commission, as well as the International Monetary Fund and, as a guest, the Hellenic Republic. The Three Seas Initiative is a flexible and informal political platform at the presidential level, bringing together the 12 EU Member States between the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The initiative aims at the economic development of the states in the region, by stimulating interconnectivity in three main areas - transport, energy, digitalisation - increasing real convergence between EU Member States, thus contributing to strengthening unity and cohesion within the Union and strengthening the European project as well as strengthening the transatlantic relationship, including by stimulating the US economic presence in the region. Essential decisions were adopted for the future of the Initiative at the Bucharest Summit, of September 17-18, 2018, such as the list of major priority interconnection projects in the fields of transport, energy and digitalisation; the organization of the first Business Forum of the Three Seas Initiative (with over 600 officials and business representatives from the countries participating in the Initiative and other EU Member States, the USA, the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership, as well as representatives of the EU and the European and international financial institutions); the initiation of the launch procedure of the network of 3SI Chambers of Commerce (by the signing of the Joint Declaration on the establishment of this network by 7 Chambers of Commerce from the 12 participating states); initiating the procedure for launching the Investment Fund of the Three Seas Initiative (by signing of the Letter of Intent regarding the 3SI Investment Fund by 6 profile institutions from the 12 participating states). AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Razvan-Adrian Pandea)

Continue reading on: