Berlin Process Summit: Western Balkan leaders agree to strengthen regional cooperation on energy security and the green transition

At the Berlin Summit, Western Balkan leaders adopted a seminal Declaration on Energy Security and Green Transition, underlining their commitment to the European Green Deal and enhanced regional cooperation in the process of transforming their energy sectors. The Declaration envisages that these commitments will be further conceptualized, supported and monitored in the framework of the Energy Community and are aligned with the European Green Deal. Donors and international financial institutions were invited to streamline their financial support to the policies, measures and actions set out in the national energy and climate plans to be endorsed by the Energy Community Secretariat and adopted by the end of 2023. The Summit was attended by Director Lorkowksi and Deputy Director Buschle.

Addressing the leaders, Director Lorkowski said: “The Energy Community is ready to take energy security and the energy transition in the Western Balkans to the next level. Both are intrinsically linked and can only be achieved by deeper regional cooperation. We will dedicate all our efforts to support the Contracting Parties of the Western Balkans in the process in line with the European path towards a carbon neutral economy by 2050.”

The immediate next step will be the adoption of the 2030 energy and climate targets, the electricity market integration package and the regulation for monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions at the Energy Community Ministerial Council meeting in December 2022.

Among others, the leaders called on the Energy Community to conceptualize and propose regionally co-ordinated approaches to phasing out coal-fired power generation, as well as energy security mechanisms and carbon pricing schemes with the ultimate objective to join the European emission trading scheme and avoid the application of the planned carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) by the European Union.

In order to tackle air pollution, leaders also committed to ensure compliance with the Large Combustion Plants Directive, which fights air pollution by setting limits for the emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust, and called on municipalities and regions to actively engage with the Energy Community Secretariat’s Clean Air Regions Initiative. They committed to expand the development of renewable energies and implement and use the regional system established in the Energy Community for the issuance and trade of guarantees of origin.

Leaders also agreed to harmonize crisis and emergency measures, including with EU Member States in the spirit of solidarity, and remove any obstacles to market functioning.