Serbian Government has adopted a negotiating position for the Intergovernmental Conference on Serbia’s accession to the European Union for Chapter 15, which is related to energy.
According to the Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic, a previously important step in harmonizing domestic legislation in the field of energy with European regulations was made by adopting two new laws – the Law on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources and the Law on Energy Efficiency and Rational Use of Energy, as well as the amendments to the Law on Energy , which gave Serbia a regulatory framework in line with the relevant EU directives.
She said that, in the previous period, the criteria for Chapter 15 were met, so it is no longer an obstacle for the opening of Cluster 4 in negotiations with the EU. In the area of oil and oil derivatives, this was done by adopting the Action Plan for the formation and maintenance of mandatory reserves of crude oil and oil derivatives, which was adopted by the Government at the end of May. The second condition referred to the adoption of the action plan for the reorganization of the public enterprise Srbijagas, the implementation of which will enable the separation of activities in the gas sector and the harmonization of gas companies with EU regulations and domestic laws.
With the negotiating position of the candidate countries for membership in the European Union, it represents the achieved level of harmonization with the acquis communautaire, the program of residual harmonization, as well as an overview of existing and future administrative capacities for implementation.
