Romania’s Decision Makers | Editorial Series by The Diplomat-Bucharest
As energy security and decarbonization move to the top of Europe’s strategic agenda, Romania is increasingly emerging as a key player in the energy landscape of Central and Eastern Europe. With a diversified energy mix, significant domestic resources, and a strong nuclear sector, the country is well positioned to strengthen regional energy resilience while advancing its climate commitments.
Beyond its natural advantages, Romania is also undergoing a structural shift in its economic positioning. Competitive labour costs, a well-established industrial base, access to EU funding instruments such as the Modernization Fund, and a rapidly expanding IT and clean tech ecosystem are helping the country transition from a low-cost production location to a strategic value-creation platform within the CEE region.
In an interview with The Diplomat-Bucharest, Cosmin Ghiță, CEO of Nuclearelectrica, explains how nuclear energy can anchor Romania’s long-term energy strategy, discusses the country’s potential to become a regional leader in clean and secure energy, and highlights the importance of developing talent and stronger partnerships between industry and academia to support the next phase of the energy transition.
From your perspective, how attractive is Romania today compared to other CEE markets when you allocate capital and investments?
Romania is well positioned in the region to be a leader in terms of energy security and decarbonization. The diverse energy mix and indigenous potential are quite substantial compared to the region. Romania is also at the intersection of major gas routes and future projects like the Green Corridor. Natural resources (gas in the Black Sea) are also a significant driver of investments, completed by ambitious projects in the nuclear and renewable fields. Despite the current budget deficit, although some positive results are already emerging, Romania saw a 57 % increase in FDI project numbers in 2024 — the highest growth among CEE markets — and jumped four places to 13th in Europe for FDI attractiveness based on project counts. Romania also has one of the highest ease of doing business coefficient in the region (55 out of 190 world economies) indicating a favourable and stable environment.
The growth potential of SEE countries is higher than that of the Western countries in multiple sectors such as digitalization, clean energies and tech, EVs, decarbonized industry.
Energy prices in the CEE region continue to be a challenge in Romania and the CEE region due mainly the low degree of interconnectivity at EU level with the periphery countries. But current EU grid development plans coupled with new energy projects in Romania (Cernavoda Units 3 and 4, SMRs, wind, solar, gas, hydrogen) will secure a less volatile market context, enabling Romania to become a regional energy hub.
How do you evaluate Romania in terms of cost competitiveness versus productivity and value creation?
Romania still offers important advantages such as the cost of labour, which is lower than in Western Europe, diversified energy mix with low dependency on imports, funding instruments such as the Modernization Fund (which is limited to only 13 MS), established industrial base and a growing potential in the IT sector and clean tech.
For a company like Nuclearelectrica, value creation in Romania is more about strategic positioning. Nuclear projects need a long term commitment and vision and Romania has a long standing history of safe nuclear operations, a well developed value chain, fuel cycle and skilled labour force. These elements are much more costly to obtain today. Romania has a potential to decarbonize its energy intensive industry by cleaner solutions like nuclear and renewables and also the geographical advantage in the Black Sea region. Romanian energy policy is centred around investments in a clean energy mix, which is already one of the cleanest in the region (61% low carbon sources). Innovation is also emerging in Romania in key sectors, including in energy with the development of the fist SMR project in the EU in Doicesti and of advanced reactor technologies such as Alfred in Pitesti.
In a nutshell, I would say that Romania is moving from a “low-cost location” to a “strategic value-creation platform” within CEE.
What are the top three factors that most influence your investment decisions in Romania: regulation, infrastructure, talent, taxation, or market size?
Stability, predictability and regulation.
How could public authorities better support large investors and strategic industries?
Large investments in the nuclear sector but also in other strategic sectors require 3 key elements: predictability, bankability, and execution capacity.
Projects need a clear long-term planning, the risk is not the technology but the regulatory environment. In the nuclear sector, we know this very well and we are happy to see that recent EU policies are granting a much larger and more important role to nuclear energy, as part of a balanced and resilient mix in the EU. Climate and energy policies should be based on the principle of technology neutrality in order to ensure that projects are able to attract diverse and low-premium funding. Instruments such as CfDs which the European Commission is supporting and the Romanian state is already applying in the nuclear sector as well are very useful in ensuring the necessary predictability for the project as well as the long term energy supply for the Member State, reducing market volatility and impact on final consumers.
Large projects still need state support which depending on the type of project can translate in several measures, all of which need to be market based and non-distortive in order to meet the requirements of the European Commission. State guarantees and CfDs serve as attraction mechanisms for private investors. And we are seeing a growing interest to invest in nuclear projects because they are cost competitive and offer long term profits (the operation time of a nuclear power plant can go up to 60 years and beyond), with low risk of cost volatility (the cost of raw materials). A blend of private and public instruments is a strong business case for nuclear projects. But public support extends well beyond the financial element. It also includes policies to develop skills, accelerated permitting, development of industrial ecosystems, grid development, international cooperation, economic and fiscal policy stability and so on. All these elements are conducive to successful projects.
And last but not least, it is up to the project developer to master the capacity, both administrative and in terms of know-how, to implement projects on time and on budget. And Nuclearelectrica is a driving force for projects development and implementation in Romania with extensive technical know-how, expertise and governance able to deliver on complex simultaneous large scale projects. Just to mention the recent FID for the Doicesti project, the start of works on the tritium removal facility and the rapid steps towards Unit 1 refurbishment to begin next year.
What should Romania change in education or workforce policies to better match business realities?
Romania has the advantage of a large talent, a young and diverse workforce and the potential to reconvert personnel from the sectors affected by the energy transition (the coal sector for example). But, at the same time we also face significant challenges.
So the talent is not the problem, attraction, motivation, incentives and a general long-term vision are the elements we need to work on. Strong synergies need to be developed between the universities and the industry in order to ensure a career path for students and a clear vision of their future. Dual education is a model that SNN is applying successfully in Constanta. Other instruments include scholarships, internships and yearly practice programs that introduce students in the daily life and work at a nuclear power plant. Hands on experience in an innovative, cutting edge sector is a powerful attraction factor and universities are happy to cooperate in larger long term programs. This program allows universities to harmonize the curricula for sciences related to the nuclear specialization and helps the company have access to well prepared students from the get go.
We have established a tradition of being present, being involved in the educational system and try to meet students at every point which is relevant for them.
I believe that the cooperation between industry, academia and the authorities works best when it is based on clear assessments about future work needs for every sector, long term planning and support of joint initiatives – a Clean energy technologies academy for example. Having in place a national skills strategy would contribute to talent retention in Romania and would better serve industry interests without driving up competition over scare resources.
How confident are you about Romania’s economic outlook for 2026–2030?
I am confident in Nuclearelectrica’s projects and regional level positioning efforts. We are a strategic energy produces with clear capabilities to drive economic growth. Similarly, many other economic actors are striving for long term growth. If we join the efforts of the industry with those of the administration, I am confident that Romania’s economic perspective is good one.
Where do you see the biggest growth opportunities during this period?
From the perspective of a nuclear operator, we see a great opportunity for Romania to build upon its national capabilities, develop its indigenous energy projects and provide the necessary conditions for re-industrialization and digitalization.
Access to affordable electricity is a sine qua non condition, as rightly pointed out by Mario Draghi and numerous energy policies that followed his report. Affordable energy means stable, baseload production capacities, a diversified energy mix and good interconnectivity at regional and EU level. Investing in the energy sector, in clean technologies is not just a business opportunity but also a strategic imperative in order to ensure security of supply and resilience.
Clean affordable domestic energy will help energy intensive industry to better plan and scale their decarbonization pathway and will attract new business.
Energy transition represents an opportunity when it is implemented strategically, based on national capabilities and with a coordinated vision across different sectors. Romania has the potential to localize supply chains for advanced manufacturing and clean technology industries for example in the field of SMRs. Its geographic position and regional interconnections also offer opportunities in energy exports and cross-border services. In short, growth will be driven by abundant and clean energy sources, higher value-added industries, and stronger integration into Europe’s evolving low-carbon economy.
What investment priorities will define your company’s roadmap in Romania over the next 3–5 years?
Capacity expansion, including the refurbishment of Unit 1. In early 30s, Romania will benefit from 1400 MW coming from Units 1 and 2, 1400 MW coming from Units 3 and 4 and 462 MW coming from 6 SMR modules.
Innovative projects like the Tritium Removal Facility, first such facility in Europe and third in the world, and medical isotopes destined for a clear social benefit, as CANDU technology allows this and gives the Romanian nuclear industry a new purpose and meaning.
Human resource-maybe the greatest investment as it is the intellectual capacity behind all processes and, simultaneously, Romania’s nuclear future.
At Nuclearelectrica we operate a complex safety system and we consider available, safe and reliable energy production a safety system in itself. Any country that strengthens its energy system and energy security, strengthens one of its safety systems.
What should Romania’s economic strategy prioritize to stay competitive in the next decade?
It is important for Romania to stay on track with the reforms needed to continue the attraction of funds, to maintain economic stability, continue the development cross boarder projects needed to boost interconnectivity and further integrate in the EU single market. The EU is blending decarbonization objectives with strong competitiveness and industrial growth policies which include tools that Member States can use to design and implement their own projects in the areas of clean tech, low-carbon solutions, digitalization, mobility, circular economy etc. We need to ensure that we are part of this new paradigm, capitalizing on the benefits that exist and leveraging our national advantages.
Which three reforms would have the greatest positive impact on business confidence?
Business confidence is developed in time, not overnight and it requires a predictable and stable policy, easy access to relevant instruments (one stop shops, fast permitting, digital solutions), long term planning and vision and administrative capacity that is ready to help projects develop, find resources and deliver added value to the national economy. Synergies across different sectors and transparency are also essential to ensure that projects don’t run into roadblocks. In short, predictability, speed, and institutional stability.
What industries could realistically become Romania’s strategic champions by 2030?
To answer this question, it is important to look at the sectors in which Romania is already a leading player, sectors where the country combines existing industrial base, skilled workforce, EU alignment, and geographic advantage.
The energy and clean tech sector is a fast growing one, relying on a solid basis and infrastructure coupled with available resources and well developed, experience companies. Taking into account the nuclear projects, the gas from the Black Sea and the strong renewable potential already well developed, alongside relevant interconnections, Romania could become a regional energy hub delivering price stability for the population and regional security.
IT, cybersecurity and digital services is also an emerging sector, for which Romania is well positioned given its growing tech ecosystem and competitive labour costs.
The agribusiness is also a strong point for Romania based on the available farm land and the emerging intermediary crop system that places Romania as an emerging producer of biofuels, further decarbonizing hard to abate sectors.
Romania’s success will depend on long term vision and planning, economic stability, the already existing strengths up the value chain and integrating them into Europe’s growth path.
If you were advising policymakers tomorrow, what one message would you deliver?
Just three words: factuality, stability and continuity. These are strong long-term economy shapers.