“Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Butka, for inviting, uh, one more year, the European Commission to the energy community. Parliamentary planning on such important topics as electricity affordability and integration of renewable, which I would like to address from the enlargement and electricity market integration perspective. First, I would like to highlight the momentum for enlargement and the first steps on the gradual integration of the EU candidate countries the Western Balkans, the Eastern Partnership with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia from loading the benefits of the EU internal energy market prior to the EU membership is a unique opportunity for the energy community contracting parties. We have been working for years with the Energy Community Secretariat and the Contracting Parties for their full integration into our EU internal electricity market, It. But for this to happen, the contracting parties need to fully transpose and implement the Electricity Integration Package, which was adopted by the Energy Community Ministerial Council in 2022. My second message is that integrated electricity markets will bring significant benefits to the region, contributing to affordable, secure and sustainable energy for households, small and medium enterprises and industries. Reverting to the competitiveness of the region, I can give concrete examples. It will facilitate the deployment of renewables in the region. A lot of progress has been done in the last years with some only few examples. Albania has seen a sharp uptake of deployment of PB solar capacity, rising from 23MW in 2021 to more than 300MW in 2024. Or North Macedonia with again Important social capacity. Solar capacity increasing from more than 500MW to 800MW from 2023 to 2024. Another important step that we are giving with the work of the European Commission is working on a proposal for the mutual recognition of guarantees of origin, which will be an essential step to enable cross-border renewables trade and ensure investment certainty across the region.”
EU approach to electricity market and prices · EU relations with Western Balkans
“And this reform agenda and Ukraine plan contains what we call a plan, with reforms and milestones similar to what we have in Europe. And one of the key reforms is precisely the electricity market integration to ensure that the markets are functioning well, functioning markets is going to bring affordability is going to facilitate the deployment of renewables and is going to bring energy security and resilience to our EU energy markets. The commitments under the Energy Community Framework greatly support this process. And my last message before I conclude is I would like to highlight that we can only deliver on this legal and political commitments and unpredictable regulatory framework if there is a strong political will on the contracting parties side as well. There are some delays in the transposition and implementation of electricity package, and what we would like to do is like to really respect the deadlines, because these add much more complexity if is not working. Respecting the deadlines. When we try to implement the next steps in the market coupling process, or in other in other deadlines for EU projects that can be put at risk. We should stick to our commitments and deliver on this ambitious project with an inclusive and coordinated approach involving all stakeholders, ministries, national parliaments, regulators, market players, consumers, NGOs. We, the Energy Community, Contracting Parties and EU member states are building our future together. But for this to happen, implementation of legislation is crucial. Let's make this happen. Is the moment to join forces? Thank you very much.”
EU approach to electricity market and prices · EU-Ukraine relations