European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic expects Ukraine in 2017 to complete the reform of its gas sector and adopt laws to reform its electricity sector and improve energy efficiency.
Following the signing of a memorandum on a new energy partnership, “we defined priorities for 2017”: the first is completion of the gas sector reform, the second is electricity sector reform, within which Europe expects the adoption of new legislation, and the third is increasing energy efficiency, stated Sefcovic at a high-level conference on the new EU-Ukraine energy partnership on the sidelines of the EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels on Monday 19 December.
It is “very important” for energy efficiency that a new law is passed “in the coming months”, stressed Sefcovic, stating that implementation of the law should attract money from the European energy efficiency fund (EEEF). The commissioner pointed out, too, that the EIB had, on Monday, announced a €120 million loan to support higher education and energy efficiency in Ukraine (see EUROPE 11692).
At their bilateral summit in Brussels on 24 November, the EU and Ukraine signed a memorandum of understanding on a new energy partnership, replacing the 2005 energy cooperation agreement and covering energy efficiency and renewable energy, decarbonising the economy and research in addition to energy security, nuclear safety, infrastructure and market reform (see EUROPE 11675). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)