The Dixi Group analytical center presented the report “One Year in the Energy Community: Are We Doing Well?”
On January 31 in Kyiv, the Dixi Group analytical center presented the report “One Year in the Energy Community: Are We Doing Well?”. The survey was supported by the European Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.
By becoming a full-fledged member of the Energy Community, Ukraine committed itself to implementing selected European directives and regulations on gas, electricity, environment and renewable energy by January 1, 2012. The country must also implement a series of EU directives on environmental protection by 2013, 2015 and 2018, as well as recommended changes concerning the environment and energy efficiency.
The experts concluded that no obligation has been implemented fully. According to them, Ukraine was seeking funds and tools to block the construction of the South Stream pipeline, while the European side, first of all, expected reform in Ukraine’s energy sector. Different expectations and lack of communication ended in public accusations at the end of the year.
In the experts’ opinion, the implementation process was delayed over the course of the year, it was closed and did not go beyond a small circle of people, and the government, under the label of promoting European reforms, used membership in the Energy Community not as intended – but for manipulation, thus increasing manual control.
“Had Ukraine carried out its obligations to the Energy Community, Ukrainian citizens today could easily obtain information about dispute resolution mechanisms, detailed information about tariffs, the structure and methods of calculating them, there would be guarantees against natural gas outages, particularly for vulnerable groups of consumers. However, the government didn’t focus on achieving this result and made the fight against South Stream its main objective. While we put all our efforts into a war against an unbuilt pipeline, our cooperation with the EU is weakening,” Dixi Group founder Olena Pavlenko said.
Dixi Group Program Manager and Chief Editor of the site UA-Energy.org Roman Nitsovych presented key recommendations for improving dialogue between Ukraine and Europe. “The wall of misunderstanding can be overcome by establishing quality communication between Ukraine and the Energy Community, both on the official and working levels. The government must set a new timeline for the implementation of European directives and strengthen control over the fulfillment of specific objectives. A more open and transparent process will help make the Energy Community closer and more understandable for everyone,” said the expert.
Svitlana Holikova, Director of TransEnergoConsulting, noted that in 2011 the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission of Ukraine paid more attention to the gas sector. Therefore, in 2012 a plan must be adopted to implement the acquis communautaire on the electricity market and access to the cross-border electricity transmission network.
On December 15, 2010, the Ukrainian parliament ratified the Treaty Establishing the Energy Community and on February 1, 2011 Ukraine became a full-fledged member of the Energy Community.
Dixi Group
Iryna Petrenko
petrenko@dixigroup.org
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The Goal of the European Program is to promote Ukraine’s European integration by providing financial and expert support to relevant civil society initiatives.
