THE ENERGY COMMUNITY AS A MECHANISM OF LEGAL TRANSITION AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Abstract

In late 2019, the EU accession process was thrown into confusion by France’s ‘veto’ of the
opening of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia and accompanying call
for the accession process to be redesigned. In February 2020, the European Commission
responded with its proposal for a reformed accession process to provide a ‘credible EU
perspective for the Western Balkans’. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, the
uncertainty cast on the accession process arguably renders legal integration processes such as
the Energy Community more necessary, rather than less. Until a compromise on accession
reform is found and the political will to proceed with enlargement is rediscovered, it is vital
that the practical work of the legal integration of the Western Balkans continues. The alternative would risk unbridgeable divergences from an EU working towards climate
neutrality. In this context, it is interesting to note that the Energy Community model of legal
integration of the Western Balkans is being replicated in the transport sector, with the
adoption of the Treaty establishing the Transport Community in 2017.
From the perspective of the EU, the transition of Western Balkan energy sectors in the
direction of EU integration is also a strategic imperative. At a time of competing projects of
economic integration touching the same region, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative,
effective integration of the Western Balkans has taken on a new urgency. The European
Commission’s commitment to a ‘Green Agenda for the Western Balkans’ is a positive sign
that the EU will strengthen its commitment. There is certainly scope for greater EU support
for the Western Balkan energy transition. At a time when state-owned Chinese banks have
been providing hundreds of millions of euros for new coal plants, the European Investment
Bank’s energy sector lending has accounted for only five per cent of its activity in the
region. The EIB states that it is ‘actively seeking’ Western Balkan renewable and energy
efficiency projects.
Legal transition requires both technocratic and normative components. Work such as building
institutions and transposing legislation requires the development and application of technical
expertise. At the same time, it is necessary to cultivate the normative base to underpin the
structures of the transition, such as by strengthening the rule of law, establishing standards of
conduct and encouraging an active civil society. The challenge is not just to transpose pieces
of legislation, but to ground the region in the EU’s normative approach to climate change and
the clean energy transition. As one Montenegrin MP observed in the context of the Energy
Community Parliamentary Plenum, ‘[e]nergy efficiency, environmental protection and
climate changes policies are perhaps what brings the region closest together’. If this is not
yet entirely clear, there is still the potential to achieve greater convergence with the EU – and
a more sustainable and developed regional economy – on the basis of cleaner energy.