Rationale Behind the Establishment of the Energy Community

Abstract

This paper deals with the Energy Community established between the countries from SEE and the European Union. It serves as an example of the extension of the energy acquis to the countries from SEE, before the later become full members of the EU. In particular, the paper analyses the rationale that stands behind the establishment of the Energy Community. It will show that, unlike the reforms undertaken in Central and Easter Europe which were focused on economic reforms, the countries from SEE had to go through a process of recovery from the political conflicts and wars that took place in the 1990s. Therefore, not the market reforms including the energy liberalisation and democratic governance, but conflict prevention and reforms for establishing the stability and restructuring of the physical infrastructure took place in the last decade in the SEE. This paper will argue that there are strong driving forces on both sides which led to development of the idea for establishing a regional electricity market in SEE and now keep forcing the implementation of the EnCT in practice. The Energy Community, on the one hand, contributes to the three main objectives of the EU’s energy policy has: competitiveness, security of supply and sustainability. On the other hand, the membership perspective of the SEE countries is the main motivation and stimulated their involvement in the whole project.