Brussels, 17/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The first ministerial meeting of the Energy Community (members to date are the EU, 8 countries in South-East Europe (Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia) and the UN's interim administration in Kosovo), co-chaired by EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Macedonian economics minister Vera Rafajlovska, adopted a work programme in Skopje (Macedonia) for the Energy Community (set up on 1 July 2006, see EUROPE 9219). The Energy Community is a new energy cooperation framework for the EU and South-Eastern Europe, based on EU energy legislation and the internal energy market, aiming to harmonise the functioning and development of the energy market to improve security of supply for all inhabitants of the countries in question.
Noting the pledges by all members to reform the energy market, the ministers adopted national roadmaps for developing an integrated energy market. They agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding on the social dimension of the Energy Community. Ministers granted observer status to four countries which may be able to join the Energy Community in the future, namely Moldova, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine. (eh)