During today’s Baltic Energy Security Summit in Copenhagen, representatives of eight Baltic Sea states have signed a joint declaration of energy ministers to strengthen energy security in the Baltic Sea region by expanding renewable energy. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action was represented by Parliamentary State Secretary Franziska Brantner.

The EU Baltic Sea states declared that they intend to further expand offshore wind energy and implement cooperation projects in this field. To this end, they will also build on the production of green hydrogen on the basis of electricity from offshore wind energy. In May 2022, the heads of government and the energy ministers of the North Seas countries Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium had already agreed on ambitious expansion targets and intensified cooperation in the field of offshore wind energy at a summit in Esbjerg.

Prior to the summit, Federal Minister Robert Habeck and his Danish counterpart Dan Jørgensen had signed a joint declaration on the development of the Bornholm Energy Island offshore project. In the context of the joint project, offshore wind farms with a capacity of up to 3 GW will be installed by 2030 around the Danish island of Bornholm. Germany and Denmark will connect the energy hub of Bornholm via power lines to the German and the Danish mainlands. Both the green electricity thus generated and the cost of the grid infrastructure will be shared. The cooperation aims to facilitate imports of renewables-based energy and press ahead with energy security and climate action in Europe.

Federal Minister Robert Habeck said: "We have now agreed on a flagship project of cross-border energy cooperation with Denmark. The green electricity generated in the context of the Bornholm Energy Island project will complement our domestic electricity production and reduce our dependency on imports of fossil fuels. Such projects between European partners help us to attain two essential goals, namely energy security and climate neutrality."

Increasing efforts to diversify Germany’s energy imports is more important than ever in view of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, the aim is to quickly reduce dependency on fossil fuels from Russia and to harness new, clean energy.