Eurasia Press & News
The Council of Ministers of the European Energy Community may take a decision on admittance of Moldova to the membership of this organization.
Moldovan Vice-Premier, Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar will participate in the VII sitting of the Council, which will be opened in Zagreb on Thursday.
As Infotag has already reported, the Memorandum on the completion of the talks on Moldova’s joining this community was signed in April in Chisinau by former Deputy Minister Tudor Copaci and Deputy Director General of the Directorate General Energy and Transport of the European Commission Fabrizio Barbaso.
The admittance to the Energy Community is one of the main objectives, which is fixed in the Energy Strategy of the Republic. The membership in the Community will raise Moldova’s energy security, its investment attractiveness, it will accelerate its integration into Europe, it will improve Moldova’s provision with energy resources, and it will help in the development of renewable energy sources.
One of main requirements for the membership of the European Energy Community is the harmonization of the national energy legislation with the European one. The Government has already approved the new Bills on Energy and Gas and committed them to the Parliament. They passed the expertise of the European Commission, the World Bank and the European Energy Community.
The European Union, as well as representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo signed the Agreement on setting up the Energy Community of the Countries of Southeastern Europe on October 25, 2005 in the Athens. The Agreement on the Energy Community, aimed at creating the single energy and gas market, unites 27 countries. The document came in force on July 1, 2006 and it envisages the gradual introduction of the EU legislation in the field of electric energy, natural gas, competition, supply security, protection of investments and renewable energy sources. In November 2006 Moldova received the observer’s status in this organization.
The creation of the integrated regional Energy market is one of the most large-scale initiatives of the European Union and one of the most expensive projects of the World Bank during the last years; all in all, $1 billion was allocated for the implementation of this project. The program is aimed at the coordination of activities in the energy sector and at facilitating trade in energy resources in the countries of the region.
The countries, which signed the document, and the European Union must open their national electric energy and natural gas market for strange companies and from January 1, 2015 it will be liberalized for retail consumers, as well.
