The House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee unanimously passed a motion for a resolution supporting the Three Seas Initiative. The document will now be discussed by Congress.
The initiators of the resolution are Marcy Kaptur from the Democratic Party of Ohio and the Republican Adam Kinziger from Illinois who have Polish roots. 39 other representatives from both parties also signed up to the bill.
The document expresses support for the Three Seas Initiative "in its efforts to increase the energy resilience and connectivity of infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe", encourages Member States to jointly finance energy and infrastructure projects, and to extend cooperation in this field to countries outside the EU, such as like Ukraine, Moldova and the countries of the Western Balkans.
The resolution also reaffirms the US president's powers to financially support Three Seas projects, encourages states to diversify their energy sources - including renewables - and "condemns any efforts by Russia to use energy as a weapon to exert pressure on or undermine freedom and democracy in Europe."
"The Three Seas Initiative will undoubtedly strengthen the energy independence and security of infrastructure in the region and show strong US support in the face of increased Russian and Chinese influence in these countries," - Congressman Kinziger emphasized in a statement after the vote.
The Three Seas Initiative is a political and economic initiative established in 2015 on the initiative of the presidents of Poland and Croatia. Currently, the group includes 12 EU countries - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary - situated between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Sea.
