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NEUM, April 25 (FENA) - The focus of the three-day Energy Summit, which began today in Neum, is the panel on Sustainable Development of the Energy Sector in BiH, and as the main obstacles to the development of the electricity and gas sector the participants singled out the existing legislation and regulations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and lagging behind in transfer and implementation of the EU legislation.
The lagging, as has been said, has an impact on the further development of the sector, reliability of supply and investors’ interest in investing in BiH.
The fourth Energy Summit in BiH 2018 is a continuance of the successful energy sector dialogue organized and financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).
The summit has brought together some four hundred experts and decision makers from the energy sector, and the topics to be discussed are, among others, solutions to current problems in the sector that has enormous potential for economic development in BiH.
The summit's organizers are the USAID project Investing in the Energy Sector (EIA) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) through the projects "Stimulating Renewable Energy in BiH" and "Stimulating Energy Efficiency in BiH", under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, the State Regulatory Commission for Electricity, the Regulatory Commission for Energy of FBiH and the Regulatory Commission for Energy of RS.
Director of USAID's project "Investing in the Energy Sector" Ognjen Marković, said in a press release that the electricity market in BiH is partly open, and for it to be fully open, it is necessary to adopt legislation with which BiH will be able to execute the deregulation of electricity generation in production facilities.
He especially emphasized that it is specific for this summit that the experts will give out clear messages from the first two days of the summit to representatives of parliamentary parties during the third day of the summit, when they will define the directions in which the energy sector should move in the future.
Head of the program for promoting renewable energy sources and energy efficiency financed by GIZ in BiH, Sybille Strahl explained that this organization provides technical assistance to BiH institutions in the form of advisory services and support to capacity building of institutions, and organizes various platforms for dialogue, such as today's summit.
"Whenever you add a new element, there is plenty of room for learning, and when it comes to transition, Germany still learns, but has gained a lot of experience that is happy to share with its partners," Strahl said.
She also said that Germany supports BiH in its efforts to be a part of the energy community and achieving progress in that regard.
However, she added that a lot depends on the political decisions that she could not comment on.
An expert in the field of electricity networks and systems Mirza Kušljugić aso addressed the journalists and said that BiH will not be excluded from the energy community, and that it "we can only do it ourselves, to ourselves".
"The fact that we are under sanctions does not mean that anyone will exclude us, but at the same time it does not mean that we can accept the obligations that we are unable to fulfill from the onset," said Kušljugić.
He stressed that BiH must seriously take hold of the forthcoming process, which includes drafting strategic documents for the period 2020-2030.
This process is moving forward rapidly in the European Union, and at the same time it is very demanding.
“Every transformation is painful because you transform from one state to another. It is lucky for BiH that it is one of the few countries in the region that can achieve energy sustainability on renewable sources, but any transition process that carries with it the inevitable transition loses has its own reasoning behind it,” said Kušljugić.
"We are a country that is rich in energy, but we can come into a position to import electricity, which would be a catastrophic development, because no one can prevent customers from buying electricity where it is cheaper," he warned.
Therefore, his opinion is that the solution is in connecting the countries in the region.
He stressed that the process of consolidation of the EU market is already taking place and that the EU gathers more than 150 million people, while the region is still moving slowly forward and is limited.
(FENA) S. R.
