The Romanian government plans to invest more than two billion euros in the development of a battery sector over the next five years. To this end, 20,000 employees are to be trained or retrained.
The Romanian Ministries of Economy and Education have signed a memorandum of understanding with EIT InnoEnergy. The goal is to integrate Romania into the European battery value chain. EIT InnoEnergy is a public-private partnership partly funded by the European Union. Together, the Romanian government and EIT InnoEnergy want to develop and implement a national battery strategy that is aligned with the European value chain and aims to build a Romanian battery ecosystem.
To overcome the shortage of skilled workers in the battery sector, a training and education network will be created to provide further training or retraining for around 20,000 workers in this field over the next four years. The government and EIT InnoEnergy have also announced plans to partner with several Romanian universities to introduce new bachelor's and master's degree programs.
The training content will come from the European Battery Alliance Academy (EBA), the training arm of the European Battery Alliance, an alliance of the EU Commission, EU countries, industry and academia.
"We aim to be more future-oriented, including in projects related to the circular economy that can attract investment and generate new jobs," said Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă. "We want to attract investments of at least €2 billion in the battery sector in the next five years." Ciucă described the agreement with EIT InnoEnergy as a step in that direction. He added that the associated entry into the European Battery Alliance Academy (EBA) is also an important opportunity for universities such as Petroșani, Pitești, Craiova or Galați to deploy a European curriculum with the support of EIT InnoEnergy.
