The conflicts of the 1990s led to the disintegration of a unified energy system that stretched from the Adriatic to the Black and Aegean Seas. What was once a single system suddenly was a patchwork of several. Regardless of the frontiers drawn on maps since the conflict erupted, the separate entities still rely on each other for the smooth functioning of their power supplies.
In the words of the European Commission (COM(2011) 105 final),
"Energy Community is about investments, economic development, security of energy supply and social stability; but – more than this – the Energy Community is also about solidarity, mutual trust and peace. The very existence of the Energy Community, only ten years after the end of the Balkan conflict, is a success in itself, as it stands as the first common institutional project undertaken by the non-European Union countries of South East Europe."
In Dec 2009 the Energy Community Ministerial Council decided on the accession of Moldova and Ukraine. With the decision, the geographical concept of Western Balkans, with which the process was linked initially, lost its validity. Today, the leitmotif behind the Energy Community Treaty is rather the import of the EU energy policy into non- EU countries.
CONTENT
This section brings closer the overall process of the Energy Community. After facts and figures, the milestones page outlines the historical development steps of the Energy Community. The legal framework page features all legally binding documents in the context of the Treaty. Whilst the stakeholders page throws light into the key actors involved in the process, the next one outlines institutional setting in which the Energy Community is embedded. There also are subsections on the dispute settlement mechanism and statistical information about the Contracting Parties.
