Energy Portal
EU, THE LITTORAL STATES OF THE BLACK & CASPIAN SEAS AND THEIR NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES

URL The Energy Community (EU and S. E. Europe)

Released 16/10/2008
Contributor Kyriakos Morfis
URL http://www.energy-community.org/ - open in new window

The conflicts of the 1990s led to the disintegration of a unified energy system that stretched from the Adriatic to the Black and Aegean Seas. What was once a single system is now a patchwork of several. Regardless of the frontiers drawn on maps since the conflict erupted, the separate entities still rely on each other for the smooth functioning of their power supplies.

Thus, the South East European region needed a framework in which it can cooperate on rebuilding its energy networks, ensure the stability vital for investment, and create the conditions in which its economies can be rebuilt effectively. A regional approach to energy security offers significant advantages both in terms of improved utilisation of existing supply and production capacities as well as optimising future investments. The raison d'être of the Energy Community is to facilitate this process. Ultimately it will also support the integration of the region into the internal energy market of the European Community.
 
The Energy Community extends the EU internal energy market to South East Europe and beyond, on the basis  of a legally binding framework. It thereby provides a stable investment environment based on the rule of law. Through its actions, the Energy Community contributes to security of supply in wider Europe.

The Parties to the Treaty are the European Union, on the one hand, and the Contracting Parties, namely, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. Moldova became a full fledged member (the eighth)  as of 1 May 2010, and Ukraine on 24 September 2010.
 
Georgia, Norway and Turkey take part as Observers. Technical negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine on full membership were concluded in 2009.