The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, attended today for the first time the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest, Romania.

The Three Seas Initiative is a flexible political platform launched in 2015, which includes the 12 EU Member States located between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Seas: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The Summit achieved concrete progress in multiplying transport, energy and digital interconnections in the region. To that effect, representatives of the participating EU Member States, as well as their guests, discussed concrete contributions in order to boost connectivity in the region, increase convergence, cohesion and EU unity, as well as strengthen transatlantic ties.

President Juncker addressed the Summit, in its plenary session 'An Initiative which delivers - key projects in energy, transport, digital interconnections. The Three Seas Initiative as catalyst for the cohesion and convergence of the EU and for the strengthening of the transatlantic link'.

President Juncker said: "J'ai toujours pensé que l'Europe – comment dire – devrait respirer avec ses deux poumons: l'Est et l'Ouest. Si elle ne fait pas ça, elle perd son souffle. Parfois j'ai l'impression qu'elle est en train de perdre son souffle et donc il faudra qu'entre Européens nous nous mettions d'accord sur les vertus de la coopération renforcée, si j'ose dire, non pas au sens du Traité mais au sens de la langue commune, entre l'Est et l'Ouest."

"Il faut développer, comme je le disais, les connexions à haut débit en Europe. Raison pour laquelle sur les quelque 150 milliards d'euros investis dans les régions des pays des Trois mers et qui proviennent tous du Fonds de développement régional et du Fonds de cohésion – ce dont la Commissaire roumaine, Corina Creţu, a la responsabilité et je lui en remercie – un tiers est destiné aux projets de connectivité dont 2,5 milliards d'euros plus particulièrement pour développer des infrastructures numériques à haut débit notamment dans vos zones rurales", said the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.

The European Commission recognises the contribution of the Three Seas Initiative to regional development, which leads to greater cohesion of the Union as a whole. In concrete terms, the European Commission is a major contributor to investments in connectivity and infrastructure development in the Three Seas region. The Investment Plan for Europe — the ‘Juncker Plan’ — finances connectivity projects in the region through its flagship initiative, the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

Goals of the Three Seas Initiative:

• To boost connectivity within the region, in particular on energy, transport infrastructure, and digital communication.

• To stimulate economic development, contributing to east–west and north–south cohesion within the European Union.

• To facilitate achieving real convergence among EU Member States and strengthen the European Union as a whole.

Speech by President Jean-Claude Juncker at Three Seas Initiative Summit

The Three Seas Initiative Summit

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