The Energy Community to reintroduce sanctions for BiH on April 1

Author: Zoran Vidić

The Energy Community (EC) will reintroduce its set of punitive measures for Bosnia and Herzegovina, starting April 1, due to the Balkan country’s insufficient efforts to meet obligations under the terms of the Treaty of the Energy Community, says Janez Kopač, director of the EC Secretariat.

The resumed sanctions will jeopardize investments planned for the BiH energy sector worth tens of millions euros.

The sanctions were temporarily halted last October due to successful negotiations within the BiH government bodies on implementation of Action plan for the Transfer of Legal Property in Energy Sector. They will now be reintroduced, because the agreement, according to which the remaining controversial provisions of the state law on regulatory body, transfer and market of electric power and gas were to be synchronized by the end of March, was not honored.

„The Council of the Ministers of the Energy Community adopted measures against Bosnia and Herzegovina and prolonged them in 2016 as the result of failure to introduce regulations in the gas sector at the state level. Such set of measures, equal to sanctions, are the first ever implemented against one of our member states“, EC announced.

The announced punitive measures include suspension of certain voting rights, as well as suspension of travel expenses remuneration for the BiH representatives participating in EC events. The European union is invited to suspend their financial support for the projects in the BiH gas sector.

„Lack of goodwill to take measures and adopt federal regulation on gas is my personal disappointment, since I spent many hours over the past year meeting with ministers Šarović, Đokić and Džindić to work out the Law’s first draft details, not to mention the numerous meetings at the expert level“, said Janez Kopač, director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community.

„It is important to note that the request for synchronized regulation on gas was made back in 2007. Such a blatant lack of political will to fulfill the existing international obligations is clearly a bad omen for the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European future,“ Kopač said.