Energy experts from the EU and Kazakhstan met in Astana on Tuesday 25 July to discuss bilateral and international energy cooperation, focusing on developments in international markets, the development of energy transportation routes, including those in the Caspian Sea, energy security and diversification of supplies, and also the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The meeting, chaired by Gerassimos Thomas, European Commission Deputy Director General for Energy, and Magzum Mirzagaliyev, Deputy Minister of Oil and Gas of Kazakhstan, took place under the Memorandum of Understanding on Energy Cooperation signed between the EU and Kazakhstan in 2006.
Kazakhstan’s oil fields are being developed in close cooperation with European and international oil and gas companies, and the country is one of the EU’s main suppliers of oil, accounting for 6% of EU imports.
The EU plans to extend cooperation with Kazakhstan to other energy sectors, including renewable energy and energy efficiency, and it has placed great store on the role of Kazakhstan as a possible regional leader in sustainable energy and the development of the green economy, states a briefing note from the Commission’s DG Energy.
Experts from the Commission and the Kazakh government will gather again for a further meeting on EUI-Kazakh energy cooperation in Brussels in 2018.
On Monday 24 July, Astana also hosted the EU Energy Days allowing ideas to be exchanged among governmental and Commission representatives, the energy sector, NGOs and financial institutions on the latest developments in clean energy technologies, the construction of eco-energy buildings and towns that use renewable energies to as great an extent as possible, sources of funding and the challenges and opportunities of global cooperation in this area.
The event was followed on Tuesday 25 July by a meeting of the European forum on nuclear fusion which brought together university researchers from all over the world and representatives of national governments and the Commission to discuss the latest developments in nuclear fusion. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)