On 19 February 2019, a National Assembly delegation took part in the 1st annual meeting of the Energy Community Parliamentary Plenum and the members of the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, as well as the 3rd South-East Europe Parliamentary Forum on Energy Efficiency and the Climate, both held in Brussels. The delegation comprised MPs Snezana R. Petrovic and Zarko Micin, In addition to the National Assembly delegation, both meetings were attended by parliamentary delegations of the Energy Community members.
The 1st annual meeting of the Energy Community Parliamentary Plenum and MEPs was co-chaired by Mr. Jerzy Buzek, Chairman of Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament and a representative of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. The meeting focused on sharing experiences on legislating in the area of energy efficiency in light of the adoption of the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package in the EU.
The Plenum underlined the role that Parliaments can play not just in terms of putting in place a conducive legal framework to support energy efficiency but also in terms of leading the way for energy efficiency improvements, such as renovating public buildings, using energy efficiency in public procurement, etc. Aleksandar Damjanovic of the Parliament of Montenegro presented the draft statement on the future of energy efficiency in the Energy Community after the adoption of the clean energy regulations package in the EU. The exchange of views will serve as input for the Joint Statement which will be on the agenda of the next Energy Community Parliamentary Plenum meeting in December 2019.
The Plenum adopted, by consensus, a Joint Statement on Strengthening the Promotion of Energy from Renewable Sources drafted by Goran Milevski and Hari Lokvenec of the Parliament of North Macedonia. The Plenum stressed the need to fully transpose and implement the Renewables Directive into the national legislation frameworks of all Energy Community Contracting Parties and called upon the European Commission to put in place a de-risking guarantee scheme to be financed via the budget of the European Union in the first instance in order to improve the financial conditions for renewables investors in the Energy Community.
The 3rd South-East Europe Parliamentary Forum on Energy Efficiency and the Climate was attended by Joachim Gaube, GIZ ORF-EE Sector Fund Manager, GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe –Energy Efficiency, and Violeta Kogalniceanu, Head of Infrastructure and EE Unit, Energy Community Secretariat, who led a discussion entitled “Is energy efficiency becoming the 1stfuel in the Western Balkans?” In the second part of the meeting Aleksandar Damjanovic of the Parliament of Montenegro presented the draft statement on the future of energy efficiency in the Energy Community after the adoption of the clean energy regulations package in the EU.
The Forum was organized under the auspices of project Public Dialogue on Sustainable Use of Energy in South-East Europe, implemented with the support of GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe –Energy Efficiency.
The 2nd Energy Community Parliamentary Plenum and 4th South-East Europe Parliamentary Forum on Energy Efficiency and the Climate will be held in Chisinau, in December 2019, under the auspices of Moldova’s presidency in office of the Energy Community.
