Baghdad Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi headed to Brussels on an official visit to the headquarters of the European Union.

Prior to his departure, the Prime Minister said that the visit will focus on activating the agreements concluded between Iraq and the European Union countries, in a way that contributes to Iraq overcoming the economic crisis and expanding the scope of investments.

He added that Iraq faces a seasonal shortage in the supply of electric power that the government feels and will take measures to address it, knowing that we have opened 4 major electric power stations this year, and we look forward to opening more stations in the coming months.

Al-Kadhimi indicated that the production of electrical energy has reached its highest level over the past decades, but the challenges are still great, and we still need more hard work to rise to the level of our people’s entitlement and their legitimate rights, including energy provision.

He stressed that the electricity crisis is the result of poor planning in this field, and waste of money and energies for the past long years without a clear methodology for a long-term solution.

He added that this government inherited a legacy of poor planning in the field of energy and worked during the past year to expand investments in electric power in addition to activating the investment of Iraqi gas, which is the decisive factor in operating our electric stations, most of which run on gas, which reflects previous poor planning and the absence of strategic plans this field.

Al-Kadhimi stressed that the discussions that he will hold with the European Union countries will focus on this field, in addition to other economic, security and political fields.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency