Recent developments within the Energy Charter

4Nov
2003

Guest speaker: Dr. Ria Kemper, Secretary General of the Energy Charter Secretariat.

A political initiative was launched in Europe in the early 1990s in order to achieve a mutually beneficial cooperation between East and West in the energy sector.

The European Energy Charter signed in 1991 led to the creation of the Energy Charter Treaty, in 1994, a legally-binding multilateral instrument signed or acceded to by 51 States plus the European Union.

After a brief introduction on the Energy Charter itself, Dr. Kemper presented its work, its expansion to new countries and particularly the partnership EU-Russia: The Energy Charter is currently finalising the text of an Energy Charter Protocol on Transit, a set of rules governing transit via inter-state pipelines and grids, under negotiation since 2000. This Protocol is of major importance for the Charter as the Russian Duma ( which has signed the Treaty but not ratified it yet) has declared its completion to be a condition for eventual ratification of the Treaty by Russia .