At the 1st Gas Forum, the European Commission proposed, within its overall objective of promoting the development of a competitive gas market in the region, that the achievement of the Energy Community Ring becomes a goal of the work of the Forum. Whilst the Gas Forum offers the Contracting Parties an apt platform for presenting their national investment programs, there is a pressing need for a greater political will and establishment of a solid institutional setting. 

National investment programs

Following the initial presentation of the Regional Gasification Study, the 1st Gas Forum called the Contracting Parties to prepare national investment programs. These programs identify and give priority to projects necessary for the realization of the Energy Community Gas Ring at national level. The first set of programs was presented at the Joint Gas Working Group in Apr 2008, followed by regularly updates at the subsequent meetings.

Pursuant to the conclusions of the 2nd Gas Forum, the Contracting Parties acknowledged the need of greater regional focus and agreed to report on the achieved progress with regard to regional projects in line with the Gas Ring concept to the next Forum.

Common Regulatory Approach for the Development of the Gas Ring

At the March 2009 PHLG meeting, the Energy Community Regulatory Board presented its discussion paper on Common Regulatory Approach for the Development of the Gas Ring. It tackles regulatory framework, infrastructure development and institutional arrangements.

The implementation of Directive 2003/55/EC and Regulation No. 1775/2005 form the starting point of the report. A full implementation of the gas acquis implies, by nature, harmonized access rules and tariff methodologies. In addition to the crucial question of financing, it is necessary to draw attention to the institutional setting of the Gas Ring. There are three options. Either there is a single operator owning, developing and operating the Ring. Alternatively, the Ring could be developed, owned and operated by national TSOs, but managed by a single operator. The third option would be that the Ring is developed, owned, operated and managed by national TSOs under harmonised regulatory regime.

Short List Gas Projects

Further to the development and update of the priority infrastructure project lists, there is a parallel iniative to focus on a set of selected projects. Upon proposal of the European Commission, a Donors’ Community meeting was organized to draw attention to three gas infrastructure projects of regional value on 17 Dec 2009. 
The core aim of the Donors' meeting was to see if  the international financial institutions (IFIs) are interested in financing the three projects. For each project, a separate meeting with the project stakeholders, (IFIs and donors, the European Commission and the Energy Community Secretariat), was organised. The aim of the exercise was to identify existing obstacles from the stakeholders’ perspective and find solutions to these. The meetings took place between Jan and Mar 2010. Building on the discussions, the Secretariat prepared its state of play report. This report was presented at  the 16th PHLG meeting in Mar 2010.

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