Secretariat delivers electricity and sustainability reports ahead of WB6 Trieste Summit, 11 July 2017
In the lead up to tomorrow’s Western Balkan 6 Summit in Trieste, the Energy Community Secretariat has published its annual WB6 monitoring reports on electricity and sustainability. Director Janez Kopač will officially present the reports to Western Balkan 6 stakeholders tomorrow.
Since the 2016 Paris Summit, progress at both national and regional level towards creating the electricity market has been achieved. With more than half of the energy soft measures implemented by now, electricity markets across the Western Balkans are prepared for a truly regional integration. Roadmaps for an efficient day-ahead market coupling and cross-border balancing among WB6 and with neighbouring EU Member States are being developed under the WB6 cooperation platform. In order to spur further progress, regional projects benefit from technical assistance commissioned by the Secretariat under the contract for technical assistance to connectivity in the Western Balkans, in relation to regional energy market, concluded with the European Commission.
At national level, the most prominent advancement was made in the area of price deregulation. Nevertheless, the progress still comes at a slow pace. While four of the Western Balkan 6 countries’ transmission system operators have applied for certification, some of them remain de facto bundled. To speed up the process, governments will have to remove the remaining blocking points and step up regional cooperation. The monitoring report on electricity concludes that the lack of progress in implementing the bilateral agreements between the transmission system operators of Kosovo and Serbia constitutes the single largest obstacle to regional cooperation in the WB6.
The WB6 Sustainability Charter includes a set of priority measures to support the low-carbon transition in the Western Balkans and increase the sustainability of national and regional energy markets. The report shows that progress has been achieved in the four areas monitored – energy efficiency, renewables, climate action and investment. However, higher quality of legislation, stronger governmental support and increased investments in renewable energy deployment and clean technologies remain critical for ensuring sustainable development of the energy sectors in the region.
With respect to climate action, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro are advancing in the drafting of climate change laws and all WB6 countries are generally fulfilling their reporting obligations to the UNFCCC. The first joint meeting of Ministers responsible for energy, environment and climate change established an Energy Community Climate Action Group, a common regional platform to discuss integrated energy and climate policies in the run up to the next COP in Bonn.
Promotion of investments is not yet satisfactory. Investors are still confronted with many barrier and highly bureaucratic administrative systems. An important step was taken by the Energy Community Secretariat in October 2016 with the establishment of the Dispute Resolution and Negotiation Centre, which is dedicated to mediation of commercial and investor-state disputes.
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the editor at the “info@albaniaenergy.org”.
