Italy-Montenegro: the Energy Table meeting is currently taking place in Podgorica.
On today’s visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Montenegro, the initiative promoted by ARERA, Balkan Energy School (BES), and MASE to foster the integration of European and Balkan energy markets is further strengthened.
The goal of the Energy Table, which is holding its second meeting today in Podgorica and organized by the Italian Embassy in Montenegro, is to promote dialogue between Italy and Montenegro to encourage the integration of European and Balkan energy markets. It provides an opportunity to discuss the evolution of Montenegro’s electricity market and offer an update on the operation of the MONITA interconnection cable, as well as recent developments in the Memorandum of Cooperation between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs, both represented by their ministers.
ARERA promotes the initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security and the Balkan Energy School (BES), a non-profit association under Italian law established in December 2022 to support the harmonization of the regulatory framework at the regional level, promote the development of the Balkan energy market, and ensure its effective integration at the European level. On May 24th in Rome, the first meeting took place between the two regulators ARERA and REGAGEN, the two energy ministries, the two transmission operators TERNA and CGES, and the two energy exchanges, GME and Belen, of the two countries.
“The full utilization of the interconnection’s potential will be made possible once the internal network infrastructure in Montenegro and additional network infrastructures connecting Montenegro with neighbouring countries in the Balkan region are completed, as stipulated by the intergovernmental agreement signed in February 2010,” stated Stefano Saglia, ARERA board member and president of BES since its constitution.
In 2017, the Italian and Montenegrin regulatory authorities ARERA and REGAGEN signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation to harmonize regulatory frameworks and promote the development and integration of electricity markets. In the same year, the two regulators, along with their counterparts from Albania and Serbia, helped establish a working group composed of network and market operators from the respective countries to assess the conditions for launching an electricity market integration project (market coupling). To this end, on May 8, 2024, the two regulators signed a second Memorandum of Cooperation, defining the governance of their cooperation.
European regulations stipulate, among other things, that ARERA and REGAGEN coordinate to approve the methodologies necessary for the functioning of the integrated market.”
Source ARERA