I have been following progress of the process as stundent during my master thesis. Unfortunatelly I have the impression that progress is not as it could be and investments are not ongoing. Based on various discussions I have the impression that the Secretariat regards itself as an administrator of the provision of the framework for the process. I know that for such a political and difficult process the mentioned events are important but to purely orgnaize such meetings is from my perspective not good enough. I would recommend to provide more substance in relation to a harmonized approach. This might help in relation to investments and the therefore needed stable legal provisions.

The tasks of the Secretariat of the Energy Community are mainly focused on the monitoring of the progress in relation to the implementation of the legal basis in the Contracting Parties. We follow their obligations which they entered into by signing the Treaty establishing the Energy Community.Basically we put our attention on the implementation of the “Third Package” which are Directive 2009/72/EC, Directive 2009/73/EC, Regulation 714/2009 and Regulation 715/2009. In addition we also try to support investments by developing a list which contains the projects which are provided to us by the Contracting Parties. Most of our ressources (around 80%) are devoted to tasks which are of administration nature, like organizing events, meetings, traings course, task force meetings and similar activities. Our few experts in the Secretariat are also strongly engaged in these activities, thus they do not have sufficient resources to develop or assess projects related to infrastructure. One could conclude that we need some more human resources in the administration sector so that experts are able to provide some input to projects and to support investments. Dir neykov and Deputy director Buschle are trying very hard to increase resources in administration to cope with the huge amount of events but so far they have not been successful.They are themselves travelling to each activity which is related to infrastructure to find out a proper approach and of course they also try to convince European Commision  at each occasion in Brussels that there is a need for much more resources to free up our experts.

Ukraine’s feed-in tariff for renewable energy is nearly twice that of some G8 members. Ukraine offers VAT exemption for importation of capital equipment used in renewable energy projects. Ukraine has high average wind speeds, a good solar radiation profile, plentiful biomass raw materials, and numerous dams on the Dnieper River, all ideally suited for renewable energy generation. The World Bank has pledged $200 million to Ukraine to develop energy efficiency projects, and has pledged to buy 10 million Ukrainian carbon credits. Ukraine plans to sell 50 million ERUs for $1 billion. The EBRD has already provided €5 billion for about 200 projects in Ukraine, and continues to provide funding of about €1 billion per year for projects in Ukraine. Ukraine plans to raise $6.5 billion to modernize its gas transport system. 15 wind power parks with €7 billion in planned investment are in progress in Crimea, Ukraine, and two solar power plants have been commissioned in Crimea, toward a goal of 750MW of wind energy and 1000MW of solar energy in Crimea. Ukraine plans to build 52 hydroelectric power plants in the Ivano-Frankovsk region.

Thanks, Chamber, for your efforts!