"Transmission lines from Russia and Ukraine to Turkey and Greece via Ernestinovo to Switzerland and Germany as of today start to transmit not only electricity. We are transmitting a message of mutual connection and cooperation," Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said at the ceremony.
Along with Sanader, the event was also attended by the president of the Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), Martin Fuchs, Croatian Power Industry CEO Ivan Mravak, a representative of the European Commission vice-president, Fernando de Esteban Alonso, Croatia's Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development Minister Bozidar Kalmeta, representatives of the diplomatic corps and of the power supply systems of the countries which on October 10 reconnected to the single European power supply system.
Sanader recalled the war destruction of eastern Slavonia and Ernestinovo, reiterating that Croatia expected the European Council to adopt on December 17 a clear decision containing a precise date for the start of accession talks with the European Union.
"We are ready and willing to complete all talks with the EU in the next two years, by 2007," Sanader said adding that Ernestinovo was a symbol of a new, united Europe to which Croatia aspired.
The representative of the EC vice-president, Fernando de Esteban Alonso, said that Croatia could prepare for the opening of accession talks in early 2005.
The reconstruction of the Ernestinovo transformer station and cooperation in the reconstruction of transmission lines in neighbouring countries is a clear signal of how much the situation here has changed in relation to the early 1990s, de Esteban Alonso said.
HEP CEO Ivan Mravak stressed the importance of the reconnection of the power supply systems of South-East Europe to that of the rest of the continent on October 10. On that day, 400 kilovolt transmission lines were reconnected between Romania and Hungary, Hungary and Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia.
UCTE president Martin Fuchs said that the reconnection of the systems created a power supply market with 450 million people in 23 countries with the annual electricity consumption of some 2,300 terawatt hours, which was one of the world's two biggest systems.
A study is being drawn up on expanding the network to include the entire Mediterranean, Fuchs said adding that Russia and the Baltic countries had expressed interest in joining the network.
Trade in electricity between the reconnected systems started in early November and it will be gradually increased to full capacity at the end of this year.
EC vice-president Loyola de Palacio today welcomed the news of reconnection of transmission lines of South-East Europe and the European Union, which were severed at the start of the war in 1991.
The reconnection comes at a time when the EU is starting the reintegration of South-East Europe into the European power markets. The aim of that process is to establish a single market according to the same rules from Sweden to Turkey and from Portugal to Bulgaria.
This is the first step in the establishment of an integrated power market between the two regions. The EC will support it with an agreement between the EU and Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the UN Mission in Kosovo, the EC said.