On the 23th November 2012 the Energy Community organized a Competition Workshop with the aim to build a network of national competition authorities for the energy sector.
Representatives of 50 national competition authorities from the Central and Eastern European Area attended the workshop to exchange ideas about the status quo and developments of the energy market. The liberalization of the energy markets in each country has reached different levels. Now, an alignment to the European standards should be reached.
The Workshop: Experience and cooperation in the energy sector
Dirk Burschle, Director of the Energy Community secretary, opened the Conference with the topic "The EU and the EU Member States experience in enforcing competition law in the energy sector”. Further Axel Reidlinger, partner for competition law at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer gave a summary about the European legislation regulating the energy sector. Natalie Harsdorf Enderndorf and Veronika Haubner, case handlers at the BWB, were talking about cooperation possibilities, advantages of networks and practical examples of the energy sector.
The Joint Declaration: Enforced Cooperation in Central East Europe
Highlight of this conference was the signing of the declaration. Therefore the National competition authorities of Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, Kosovo and Armenia as well as representatives of the secretary of the energy community, Dirk Burschle and as first European competition authority, the Austrian BWB agreed to cooperate in future. The Energy Community will be a platform providing for close cooperation, discussions, exchange of experience and development of best practices in competition law, legislation and enforcement of EU competition law.