Regional Energy Meeting In Tirana

TIRANA, Dec 11 – The 5th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Energy Community convened in Tirana on a two-day gathering of senior representatives from many countries in the area and also from the European Union.
The Energy Community Ministerial Council will bring together numerous ministers, deputy ministers and high senior civil servants from the region, including several representatives of the European Union.
The Ministerial Council is the principal decision-making institution of the Energy Community. It takes the key policy decisions and adopts the Energy Community’s rules and procedures. It is composed of one representative from each seven Contracting Party and of two representatives from the European Community. The Presidency of the Council is held in turn by each Contracting Party for a term of six months. For the period of 1 July to 31 December 2008,Albania chairs the Council meetings.
The prime focus of the Ministerial Council will be put on the Coordinated Auction Office, (CAO). CAO is an ambitious project, aiming at the creation of a supra-national electricity auction office for the entire region of South East Europe. On the occasion of the 5th Ministerial Council, the participating transmission operators (TSOs) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding on the CAO project. The Memorandum willformalize the commitment of the participating TSOs towards the project.
The meeting will discuss on the progress the countries have achieved in implementing the treaty and the possibility of creating regional hubs for tenders on energy. Investment in energy, its social dimension and the cooperation and inclusion in the European Union plans were other main issues.
The Energy Community Treaty, trying to create a regionally integrated energy market for electricity and natural gas networks and to integrate that market into the wider EU market, was signed in Athens on October 25, 2005 and entered into force on July 1, 2006.
The signature of the Energy Community Treaty means that the European Union and nine partners of South East Europe – Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and UNMIK on behalf of Kosova – will create the legal framework for an integrated energy market.
The development of the Regional Electricity Market is coordinated by the European Commission and the Energy Community Secretariat (ECS). The Secretariat runs the day to day work of the Energy Community and undertakes analytical work, both tasks under the co-ordination of the Commission. The Secretariat is also one of the main institutions of the Treaty and the only one that is independent of the parties of the Treaty.
The electricity sector in South East Europe has a medium to long term regional reform plan, which is set out in the Athens Memorandum of Understanding, signed 15 November 2002. Under this MoU, full members of Energy Community were obliged to implement national legislation creating electricity regulators and transmission system operators by June 2003 and to open the market for all non-domestic consumers by June 2005.
This reform plan was extended to cover the natural gas market under the Athens 2003 Memorandum of Understanding, which obliges full members of Energy Community to implement national legislation in accordance with some EU directives.
Fourteen non-governmental organizations from six south east European countries called on regional decision-makers to stop using the Energy Community of South East Europe (ECSEE) process as a vehicle to promote climate-damaging oil and lignite projects.
In a joint letter sent ahead of a meeting of south east European energy ministers in Tirana, Albania, the groups have urged regional governments not to rubber stamp an indicative list of 19 priority energy generation projects for the region worth more than EUR 8 billion, as not one involves renewable energy and several are expected to have serious impacts on air quality, climate and biodiversity.