The FINANCIAL — In anticipation of Georgia’s entry into the Energy Community organisation, the EU-funded regional energy cooperation programme INOGATE held its first Energy Policy Talk in Tbilisi to discuss the country’s energy market and how to improve its electricity value chain, market tariffs and consumer behavior.
The event gathered Georgia’s top officials, the Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia and high ranking international speakers, who also debated how joining the Energy Community will help Georgia as well as what are the challenges and obstacles along the way.
According to INOGATE, the moderated discussion also considered electrical power supply (energy and system losses, capacity in its generation, distribution and transmission), financial issues such as market price response and the reliability and resilience of electrical services from a security point of view. The participants also touched upon the role of civil society organisations and the private sector, the lessons learned from the EU as well as other Eastern Partnership countries like Ukraine and Moldova, which are members of the Energy Community.
As of October 2013, the Energy Community has nine members: the European Union and eight Contracting Parties – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine. Georgia, Armenia, Norway and Turkey participate as Observers. Georgia has been in the process of joining the Energy Community as a fully-fledged member, according to EU Neighbourhood Info.
INOGATE is one of the longest running energy technical assistance programmes funded by the European Union. It cooperates with 11 partner countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia to support a reduction in their dependency on fossil fuels and imports, improve the security of their energy supply and mitigate overall climate change. All countries of the Eastern Partnership are part of the programme. As EU Neighbourhood Info Centre reported earlier, 2016 is the last year of the 20-year long INOGATE programme.
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