Phare Energy Charter Treaty Round III

What was involved?

In 1998 the Centre was awarded a prestigious 1 million Euro contract by the Phare Technical Assistance Programme of the European Commission.  The consultancy was to assist in the modernisation of the energy legislation of thirteen Eastern European countries, which included Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.  Using a range of experts, recommendations were made to each country as to how their national legislation could be aligned with the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a treaty concerning energy policy, investment and trade. The project continued the work of the previous two ECT projects.

Training workshops were held in each of the countries, which involved participation by high-level officials from ministries, the energy sector, and other related areas.  In addition to the training workshops, three regional conferences were held in Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Latvia, which brought together high-ranking delegates from the countries within three regional areas in order to discuss pertinent issues and share advice and ideas for future implementation of the ECT. 

The project also focused on the area of trade, in particular, trade related investment measures and notifications under the ECT.  Experts in each of the countries studied the legislation and highlighted areas which potentially conflicted with the ECT.  Advice on the eradication of these measures and on how to notify the Secretariat of any such measures in existence was then given by the consortium experts.  Countries were encouraged to continually update the Energy Charter Secretariat of any change in their situation.Recommendations were also made on the setting up of enquiry points in each of the countries, which will facilitate access to information for investors interested in energy projects in each country.  A model website was developed as an example of how an enquiry point may be set-up, with this model being easily adaptable for each of the countries. The experts also practically assisted in the drafting of new energy legislation in many of the countries.   Legislation was studied and new draft laws drawn up, assisted by the chief advisors to the project.  These were then submitted to the relevant governmental departments. The project was successfully completed in January 2000.

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Who were involved?

Headed by the CEPMLP, the consortium included three specialised international firms; ICEU, Brussels (www.eco.be/iceu/), Exergia, Athens (www.exergia.gr/) and SRCICS, Czech Republic (www.srci.cz/), and more than fifty experts from the various countries involved.  The Phare co-ordinating team at the Centre included Armando Zamora, Samantha Rochford and Christine Hulbert, with Professors Peter Cameron and Thomas Wälde as chief advisors to the project.

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What is Phare?

The Phare Programme is a European Community initiative which supports the development of a larger democratic family of nations within a prosperous and stable Europe.  Its aim is to help the countries of Central Europe rejoin the mainstream of European development through future membership of the European Union. 

Phare does this by providing grant finance to support its partner countries through the process of economic transformation and strengthening of democracy to the stage where they are ready to assume the obligations of membership of the European Union.

For further information on Phare, visit their homepage at:
europa.eu.int/comm/dg1a/phare/index.htm

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