Photo: Energy Community
Janez Kopač, Director of the Energy Community (EnC) Secretariat, will visit the parliaments of Kosovo*, Serbia and Albania in December to present the key findings of the Secretariat’s 2017 Annual Implementation Report while Macedonian parliament is planned for early next year, Energy Community Secretariat told for Balkan Green Energy News portal.
On 12th December, Kopač will present the Annual Implementation Report in Tirana, on 13th December in Priština and on 22nd December in Belgrade. On 14 December the EnC Ministerial Council is taking place in Priština. In November Kopač visited Parliaments of Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia.
Director of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez Kopač said that his annual visits to each national parliament in the EnC region aim to raise awareness of the state of transposition and implementation of the EnC legal framework, pinpoint potential deficiencies and inform parliamentarians of new legislation in the pipeline.
“In particular, I present the results of the Secretariat’s Annual Implementation Report, which is a sort of report card of how each country is doing in terms of compliance with the Energy Community Treaty. As a result, parliamentarians are better informed and can more effectively oversee the energy policies of governments,”, Kopač said.
For example, in Macedonia, the focus will be on legislation soon to be presented to the parliament on transposing the Third Energy Package and Energy Efficiency Directive, which is of critical importance following years of deadlock in energy sector reforms.
In Albania and Kosovo*, Kopač will stress the importance of introducing legislation on the promotion of energy efficiency measures, which is where the two countries are lagging behind.
For Serbia, the most problematic is complete ignorance of the Third Energy Package in the gas sector.
“But these are just a few examples. I have to add that my visits to the parliaments also introduce more transparency into energy decision-making. The presentations are often an opportunity to exchange views with other national stakeholders, including regulators and NGOs,” Kopač told.
Parliamentary Plenum on 19 December
The Director’s bilateral visits to parliaments in the region are complemented by the Energy Community Parliamentary Plenum which will take place on 19th December in Vienna.
The aim of the Parliamentary Plenum is to bring together Members of Parliament of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine as well as the European Parliament to discuss joint energy and environmental challenges and support building a fully functioning and sustainable pan-European energy market.
This meeting of the Plenum will be dedicated to the security of energy supply challenges in the EnC region. Contributing to the discussion will be a joint report drafted by a rapporteur from the Energy Community together with a co-rapporteur from the European Parliament.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
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