Ministeriële Conferentie over de Energiegemeenschap (en)

The Energy Community was established to create an integrated energy market (electricity and gas) between the European Union and the Balkan States. In this context there will be a ministerial conference in Tirana (Albania) on 11 December.

At the ministerial conference in Tirana, the European Commission will present an initial progress report on the accession negotiations of Moldova, the Ukraine and Turkey to the Energy Community Treaty, which entered into force on 1 July 2006. The negotiating mandate was adopted in the Council of ministers of the European Union on 15 July last. The negotiations are being conducted separately for each of the three candidate countries.

The ministerial conference will also discuss the creation of a group for coordinating the security of the supply and the extension of certain competencies of the Energy Community to petrol.

The Energy Community (EC) is a legal community for energy cooperation between the EU and the Balkan States in the gas and electricity sectors. The member parties with voting rights are the European Community, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. EU member states can be admitted as participants, without voting rights.