The
European Union wants to use the Energy Community to integrate Ukraine, Moldova
and Western Balkan countries as well as other neighbouring states into the
European energy system, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union
Maroš Šefčovič told New Europe in Strasbourg.
“I was saying since the start of our work on
Energy Union that it doesn’t stop at the borders of the European Union because
it is quite clear that if we want to increase our energy security we have to
have very good cooperation and a relationship with our neighbours and we see
how important it is for Ukraine, how important it is for Moldova, but we also
see how our energy security could be further enhanced if we cooperate very well
with countries like Azerbaijan or Georgia because of the Southern Gas
Corridor,” Šefčovič said in an interview in Strasbourg on November 15. The
Eastern Partnership was discussed at the European Parliament plenary a day
earlier.
“So what we propose is to use Energy Community
for making sure that these countries like, for example, Ukraine or Moldova or
Western Balkan countries they gradually adopt through Energy Community the EU
legislation which makes their energy markets much more compatible with European
markets and make them much better integrated into the European system,”
Šefčovič said.
The Vice
President noted that the European Commission also supporting through, for
example, CESEC Initiative (Central and South-Eastern Europe Gas Connectivity)
in Southeast Europe different interconnectors between EU member states and
neighbouring countries. “We’re using different instruments like PCI (Projects
of Common Interests) for EU member states and PCI for our neighbours and we’re
also promoting through these different mechanisms also reforms in those
countries and I think that especially in Ukraine how the energy market is
actually transformed thanks to embracing and integrating EU legislation into
the Ukrainian system,” Šefčovič said.
Asked about
the role of Russia in the region, the Commission Vice President for Energy
Union stressed that it is “up to those countries to decide and see that much
more opportunities to make their energy systems and energy laws compatible with
the EU not only because of the issues of energy security but because our laws
have clearly modernising character for their energy markets, we’re pushing for
unbundling, de-monopolisation, more competition in the market, market coupling
and better interconnectors and stronger regional cooperation so this is
something which is appealing for these countries and therefore they prefer to
work on these matters so closely with the European Union”.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/eu-energy-community-extends-ukraine-moldova-western-balkans/