EU enlargement and adoption of the Third Energy Package by the Western Balkans region
The Western Balkans Summit took place on 27 August 2015 in Vienna. The summit was part of the Berlin Process, a five-year process marked by yearly summits in order to underline the commitment to EU-enlargement towards the Western Balkans region. The focus of the initiative is on those countries of the Western Balkans that are not yet EU-members: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
During the Vienna summit it was agreed to remove obstacles to the development of regional electricity markets and to implement „energy soft measures“. The Energy Community published monitoring reports on these issues on 2 February 2016 and mentioned Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, who had adopted the Third Energy Package, as frontrunners in achieving these goals. New efforts are requirded, especially from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to adopt concrete reforms. The Energy Community Secretariat is requested to monitor the implementatin of measures and to report on the progress during the next Western Balkans 6 Summit scheduled to take place in France in July 2016.
Source: Energy Community, 2 February 2016