On 30th January an undisclosed EU official said that the bloc was closely following the Black Sea Energy Initiative, which aims to lay a bi-directional high voltage direct current interconnector under the Black Sea to supply green energy from Azerbaijan to Europe via Georgia and Romania.

The official noted that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attended the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding on a Green Energy Partnership between Hungary, Romania, Georgia and Azerbaijan in December 2022 in Bucharest. She stressed that the European Commission is an observer in this process, which envisages a broader green energy corridor, including an undersea cable project and potential trade routes for hydrogen from renewable sources. "We welcome the fact that more countries have signalled their interest in joining this initiative," he added.

The Black Sea Energy project has been designated a flagship project under the EU's Global Gateway strategy, opening up opportunities for EU funding through the bloc's international cooperation instrument. The official also said that the project's promoters had submitted it as a candidate for a project of common interest under the EU's cross-border energy infrastructure framework (TEN-E Regulation) in late 2024. "We will now proceed with the necessary analyses and consultations while preparing the next list of Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest. Achieving such status will make the projects eligible for EU financial support under the Connecting Europe Facility," he explained.