After four years of intense activity, the Know-how Exchange Programme Project “CEI Support to Strengthening Energy Regulatory Authorities in the Western Balkans” - funded by the CEI Fund at the EBRD with around 120,000 EUR - has been concluded.
The capacity-building project, which started in 2018, was led by the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA) within the framework of the Western Balkan 6 Process. It aimed at promoting the integration between the European and the Balkan regional electricity market by strengthening the capacities of the national regulatory authorities of project beneficiary countries. This, in order to manage the process of market coupling between their national electricity market - primarily with the Italian electricity market - in accordance with the EU best practices.
While the project initially addressed regulators and relevant stakeholders from Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, the beneficiaries also included institutions from Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and Kosovo* were eventually added as observers.
In addition to the achievements both in terms of the acquirement of specific competences and expertise by the beneficiaries and the strengthening of cooperation relations among them, the project will also witness the creation of the Balkan Energy School. The School will involve the energy regulators of the Western Balkans and capitalise on the results of the CEI-funded project.
At the project’s closing event on 16 December 2021, SG Roberto Antonione underlined that the Balkan area not only had a significant value energy-wise, but it also had a geopolitical relevance since knowledge sharing brought countries together.
For more info: dovier@cei.int
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.