Energy diplomacy was discussed in Chernivtsi

On May 24, 2017 a round table discussion “Energy diplomacy: what does this mean for Ukraine” was in Chernivtsi.

The event took place following the initiative of the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute and with the implementation support of iC consulenten Ukraine.

The participants of the round table include experts of the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute Slavcho Neykov, the first Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Ambassador Lachezar Matev, PHD, energy expert and Atanas Georgiev, lecturer at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Elena Rybak, director of the iC consulenten and board member of the European-Ukrainian Energy Egency, organizer and moderator of the round table, as well as Bukovyna community – officials, NGOs, energy experts.

The Bulgarian team arrived in Chernivtsi within the educational project on energy diplomacy, which is funded by the US and Bulgarian governments through a fund aiming to support initiatives, related to energy security and energy diversification of the Western Balkan countries, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia. It is a series of lectures on energy diplomacy for students of four leading Ukrainian universities and meetings with business community and local authorities in Kiev, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Kharkov. On May 22-23, experts presented lectures on energy diplomacy for students of the Yuri Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University.

More and more there is widespread the topic of energy diplomacy in the political and economic spheres of Ukraine. After all, this is a real solution to deal with issues of global energy market development, including:

• ensuring sustainable energy consumption in the country and the continuity of the energy system,
• early response to external threats in the energy sector,
• attraction of resources (including financial ones) for the development of the national energy market and energy in general,
• integration of the Ukrainian energy market into regional and global energy markets,
• ensuring the access of Ukrainian energy companies to regional energy markets,
• strengthening Ukraine’s presence in regional energy markets,
• assistance in promoting other economic interests of Ukraine due to the successful implementation of common international projects in the energy sector,
• proactive position of Ukraine in international organizations,
• macroeconomic alignment,
• training of effective personnel management for energy diplomacy, etc.

Chernivtsi City Mayor Oleksiy Kaspruk noted that the term “energy diplomacy” is a bit unusual yet for Ukraine, but is the instrument to lobby the interests of the Ukrainian state that is extremely necessary, both at the international, state, and regional levels. “Chernivtsi actively cooperates with international institutions regarding the issues of energy efficiency improving in municipal economy, it implements several projects with the involvement of loan and grant funds. The main goal of these projects is to ensure a sustainable supply of energy to all spheres of the city’s life, as well as to diversify suppliers and energy resources. We support enterprises working in the field of alternative energy, which use and disseminate modern energy-efficient technologies. We consider very useful sectoral experience exchange with European partner cities, as well as establishment of energy cooperation. We have a lack of staff who could professionally engage a dialogue with the public on issues of national and municipal energy policy. It is very important to start this raising awareness from the school age, to teach children of responsible treating with the energy consumption. That is why educational programs on energy topics are extremely useful,”- he summed up.

During the round table, Bulgarian experts shared their sound experience in this sector. “The Ukrainian energy diplomacy should have a platform for energy cooperation,” Ambassador Lachezar Matev said. In Bulgaria, energy diplomacy has brought together all stakeholders in the energy market-business, analytical and public energy organizations and governmental bodies”. Lachezar Matev noted that Bulgaria also has an energy ombudsman that plays an important role in the energy diplomacy of the country. However, energy companies are the key communicators; they initiate active communication with the public, often not getting enough information from the government. During the negotiations to join the European Union Bulgaria has won a lot, but also lose something. Positive, and even more important negative experience of Bulgaria can be very useful for Ukraine.

Slavcho Neykov stressed that the problem of coal purchases has been largely overlooked by Ukrainian energy diplomacy, and was replaced by the oil and gas industry. However, there are international partners with join position in this issue – Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Lithuania – cooperation with which will help Ukraine to find a solution of this problem.

Elena Rybak, Managing Director of iC consulenten and board member of the European-Ukrainian Energy Agency, the moderator and organizer of the roundtable, emphasized that one of the key success factors of Ukrainian energy diplomacy is training for governmental bodies, which could deal with this subject.

Foreign partners of Ukraine on their own experience understand how important it is to invest resources and time in the next generation, which could lead Ukraine to a new level of a competent dialogue on energy diplomacy.

That is why it became possible to implement this educational project of the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute, one of the events of which was held in Chernivtsi. “We expect that thanks to the lectures, hundreds of Ukrainian students will discover new aspects of a very important topic and possibly begin to study it more deeply and professionally,” said Elena Rybak.