CEPS received a grant from the European Climate Foundation “to inform the decision-making processes at the European, regional and national levels on the benefits and opportunities of regional energy policy cooperation in Central and South East Europe and the EU at large within the context of the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package and CESEC 2.0”.
The grant attempted to build upon past achievements in introducing the low-carbon narrative to the region. It attempted to use the opportunity of the High-Level meeting in September 2017 to continue the discussion on “CESEC beyond natural gas” and steer the narrative towards a broader set of issues, which were all linked to low-carbon: e.g. energy efficiency, renewables, R&D and innovation with a link to digitalisation, or to broaden the concept of security of supply. Principal tools were workshops and Policy Briefs. The grant has enabled CEPS ECH to continue its efforts to assist the constituency, which advocates regional energy policy cooperation and advancing a more sustainable energy system.
Achieving the grant objective placed emphasis on the following topics, events and research outputs:
– Workshops:
o Workshop on Potential Energy Policy Priorities during Romania’s 2019 Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Bucharest, 31st October 2017; joint event with Energy Policy Group
o Presentation in Stakeholder session on the Central and South-Eastern Energy Connectivity (CESEC) initiative; 20 November 2017 by Cristian Stroia
– Develop two issue-specific Policy Briefs:
o CESEC 2.0: Opening the door to a new level of regional cooperation (27 September 2017 by Christian Egenhofer and Cristian Stroia): https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/cesec-20-opening-door-new-level-regional-cooperation/
o Is security of energy supply without deeper crossborder market? Lessons from the cold spell in South Eastern Europe (13 December 2017 by Christian Egenhofer and Cristian Stroia): https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/security-energy-supply-possible-without-deeper-cross-border-market-integration-lessons/
– Additional publications:
o Submission of input to DG Energy B1 Secretariat: For the Stakeholder session on the Central and South-Eastern Energy Connectivity (CESEC) initiative, 20 November 2017 by Cristian Stroia and Christian Egenhofer
o Potential Energy Policy Priorities during Romania’s 2019 Presidency of the Council of the European Union by Radu Dudău and Christian Egenhofer; published on 7 February 2018
– Speaking engagements and outreach activities:
o Tuzla Regional Energy Forum, Tuzla, Bosnia Hercegovina, 24 & 25 May: Christian Egenhofer. This Forum has been supported financially by ECF; see: http://ref.ba/
o Eurelectric stakeholder workshop on Energy Community and the CESEC Initiative in South East Europe, Brussels, 22 September 2017, Christian Egenhofer
o Aspen Energy Summit, Ploieşti, 27 September 2017
– Assistance to ECF in its efforts to mobilise EU, member state decision-makers and stakeholders in favour of regional cooperation
