A Ministerial Meeting in the presence of EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, took place at the seat of the Secretariat in Vienna on 2 July 2015. Energy Ministers expressed support for a short list of “Projects of Energy Community Interest” that the European Commission will co-finance from its Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) multi–country programme. Ministers agreed to establish a regional power market on time for the Western Balkans Summit in Paris in 2016, which will include access to power exchanges in all countries, a regional electricity balancing market and full participation in the SEECAO for capacity allocation. Ministers also discussed and supported a comprehensive list of priority legal and regulatory measures on market opening and Third Package implementation, which outlines concrete national actions and deadlines. The Secretariat was tasked to assist and monitor the implementation.
Director Janez Kopač, who chaired the meeting, said: “I strongly welcome the commitments made by the Western Balkans Ministers today and the synergies that were created between the implementation of their Energy Community commitments and the Berlin Process launched one year ago. As the Secretariat was fully involved in the development of this initiative and will continue to be, the coherence with the Energy Community framework will be ensured”.
The list of projects as well as the regional power market initiative will be endorsed by Prime Ministers at the Conference on the Western Balkans on 27 August 2015 in Vienna.
Source; Energy Community
