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IEA: Montenegro Slow On Energy Policies

27 08 2007  Podgorica_Montenegro has been slower than most countries in Central Europe and the Baltics to develop its long-term energy policies and create appropriate bodies to reform its energy markets, the International Energy Agency reported.

Montenegro "still needs to develop robust energy strategies and reliable data systems in order to reach market fundamentals," said the report published on the agency’s website on Friday.

Montenegro started reforming its energy sector in 2003. A spokeswoman with the Ministry of Economic Development said Montenegro has established a regulatory agency and adopted several strategies and laws since 2003.

"The hindering factor which follows development of the energy sector for a long time is a lack of investments for realization of certain projects," Zoja Spahic-Kustudic told Balkan Insight.

Montenegro and other Balkan countries signed the Energy Community Treaty in October 2005. The treaty is the first legally binding agreement signed by the Southeast European states and territories since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. It created a legal framework for an integrated European market for electric and gas power.

The treaty calls on the Southeast European countries to create a regional energy market that would fit into the framework of the European Union’s Internal Energy Market.

The treaty calls on the Southeast European countries to create a regional energy market that would fit into the framework of the European Union’s Internal Energy Market. The treaty also could extend EU agreements on energy competition and environmental protection to the Balkan Peninsula, the IEA report said.

The Paris-based IEA is a nongovernmental agency founded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in the wake of the 1974 oil crisis to advise its member countries on how to ensure reliable energy.

IEA said the treaty will accelerate opening Southeast Europe’s energy market and guarantee the investments and control of energy companies, as well as more widespread economic benefits.

"The expected short-term results of the initiative would be new investments in the mining and metallurgy sectors. In the longer term, the stabilization of the energy sector will assist the macro-economic revival of the region, contributing to lower emigration rates, economic growth and peace," the report said.