French ambassador to Romania Laurence Auer expressed on Monday evening, at Grand Matinal Digital, an event organized by the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Romania (CCIFER), the availability of companies from her country for a partnership in the field of civil nuclear energy, in order to support Romania’s energy transition, according to Agerpres.

The event at the Victoria Palace of Government was attended by Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, as well as the Minister of Finance, Adrian Caciu, Minister of Research Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Energy Virgil-Daniel Popescu, and Minister of Economy Florin Marian Spataru.

According to Ambassador Auer, France is the third investor in Romania, the seventh supplier and the third customer, and, she adds that they also want to look, in the future, towards new areas in which the expertise of French companies will serve Romania’s strategic agenda, which was the purpose of the meeting. She also mentioned the energy transition – the fact that the French know-how, the civil nuclear energy industry is ready to build a partnership with Romania, having just concluded visits to Paris on this issue. The ambassador also mentioned the construction and maintenance for nuclear reactors.

She also referred to the Nuward project, which aims to build small modular reactors (SMRs), namely the Nuward project, led by EDF.
Nuward’s new project on small modular reactors is one of the best examples of what can be done in the coming months. It is meant to be an industrial capability with cooperation in the field of technical expertise from other EU member states, such as: Finland, Italy, Czech Republic – in particular. Laurence Auer voiced hope that this can be developed in the coming months..

The ambassador also mentioned the experience of French companies in the field of aeronautical and shipbuilding industry, expressing the availability for cooperation, in order to strengthen Romania’s defence capability.

In his turn, the president of CCIFER, Francois Coste, highlighted that in Romania there are 4,150 investors with French capital, that have generated 125,000 jobs. At the same time, France is the third source of foreign capital in Romania. He noted the „high economic growth” of Romania in the first quarter, by 5.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as the stability of the RON-euro exchange rate.

Agerpres