Energy becomes the keyword during major Zagreb summit

ZAGREB, June.24- Albanian President Alfred Moisiu attended a one day energy summit in Zagreb, where he held important meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin on issues of economic concern as well as on the politically sensitive issue of Kosovo. The one-day energy summit was hosted by Croatia, with the participation of several Balkan country presidents as well as Russian President Putin, whose presence was of particular interest in light of the increasing significance of the South-East of Europe in the transit of Russian fuels to Europe . Attending the forum were the presidents of Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro. The Balkan countries are located within an increasingly important transit route for oil and gas. Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said, during his address, that all countries must agree that each country’s energy interests must never be realized by use of force and that the availability of energy sources would not be used as a means for political pressure. Countries that participated in the summit agreed with the assessment of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic that the energy market should be free and open and that fuels should be available to everybody on an equal basis. As the battle for control over European energy markets and transport routes is moving to the Balkans, the Russian president pledged in Zagreb to develop the Black Sea area as a center for the distribution of fuels. At the summit, Putin announced that Russia wants to play a crucial role in all forms of supply and production of energy in the region, stressing the close cultural and historical ties with the countries of the region. Putin also promised to help the Balkan region to satisfy its energy needs and play a larger role in the safe supply of Europe with gas and oil. He emphasized ongoing projects and studies through which the EU is connected to energy sources in the Black and Caspian seas through Bulgaria , Serbia , Macedonia and Hungary , as well as a recent agreement on an underwater pipeline of the Italian gas giant Eni and Russia ‘s Gazprom. The conference was held at a time when the importance of the Balkans is growing as a transit center for energy and the European Union wants to modernize the transit system in the region to use it as a route of delivery of natural gas from central Asia to western Europe. Bulgarian President Gregori Parvanov said that the development of a regional energy policy should be along the same lines as the energy strategy of the European Union. The Zagreb summit discussed numerous issues, among which the most attention was paid to the secure and dependable supply of fuels in the future, in which Russia primarily sees playing a major role and having its own long-term interests. Slovene Development Minister Ziga Turk said that “the Zagreb meeting showed a political will for the achievement of the fundamental framework for global energy security”, and announced that energy security would be one of the key priorities of Slovenia’s presidency of the EU. Turk confirmed that Slovenia was ready for a bigger role in the energy community through the organization of an international forum on gas, and the creation of a regional fuels market that would function using stock market principles.