Energy Minister and current EU President Martin Bartenstein and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs inaugurated the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna today. The Secretariat will support the countries of the Energy Community through the creation of a common energy market based on the European model. Slavtcho Neykov of Bulgaria has been appointed Director of the Secretariat.
“With the launching of the Secretariat, Vienna has become home to a third prominent international energy organisation, alongside OPEC and the IAEA”, said Bartenstein during the inauguration. “Austria will thereby become the main political energy hub of the EU, and Vienna the energy capital of Europe.”
According to EU Energy Commissioner Piebalgs, the opening of the Energy Secretariat is an important milestone in the creation of the world’s largest energy market.
The Energy Community comprises Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, the UN Mission in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania. The goal is to merge the Energy Community with the EU-25 energy market by 2015. The Energy Community has its origins in the Athens Treaty, signed on 25 October 2005.
“The Energy Community is one of the most important instruments for a common EU foreign policy on energy. For that reason, the accession of Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Norway to the Energy Community would also be of great significance”, concluded Bartenstein.
Further information on the Energy Community can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry for Economics and labour at http://www.bmwa.gv.at/presse.
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