With military being the first thing coming to our minds when we the word ‘security’ is being brought up, we often forget one other attribute that fits this word as well, making something probably more vital for the people – energy security and stability. Expensive aircraft and other military vehicles only serve us when we’re showing off and competing with other countries. Energy security and stability is what ensures we live a comfortable life.
With our eyes looking up in the skies and searching for new MIG-29 aircrafts, which will protect the skies above Serbia, there are many important things on the ground, which unfortunately happen under our radar. Increasing military power for more security pops out form all the newspaper cover pages. With military being the first thing coming to our minds when we the word ‘security’ is being brought up, we often forget one other attribute that fits this word as well, making something probably more vital for the people – energy security and stability. Expensive aircraft and other military vehicles only serve us when we’re showing off and competing with other countries, the neighboring ones in particular and hampering our relations. Energy security and stability is what powers up our refrigerators and keeping our food fresh, fuels up our cars and buses and making sure we come at work or school on time, keeping our houses warm when it’s freezing outside. Energy security is what stabilizes and runs the entire society and economy. In a globalized world, energy security and stability can’t be achieved with efforts from one side only. It requires cooperation at the regional and all other levels in order for us to achieve increased energy security and better quality of life.
From the global perspective, the issue of energy security is becoming more and more important, taking into account that energy resources are limited. Both energy production and consumption are constantly being increased, in spite of negative aspects of fossil fuel consumption, which are predominant in the current energy mix. When you take into account that both energy resources and the amount of energy being consumed are not equally distributed around the globe, you can see that things are heating up pretty quickly, with energy security being threatened resulting in many conflicts started in order to ensure control over fossil fuels.
Energy security, according to the European Security Strategy from 2003, is a precondition for development. Heavy energy dependence is a big enigma for Europe. European Union is a big importer of gas and oil, especially form Russia, Persian Gulf and Northern Africa. With many energy infrastructures being planned and already developed, it is likely for Europe to become even more energy dependent.
Connectivity – a key word
There are many difficult choices in front of the countries of our region, in order to ensure a long-term energy security and stability. In order to deal with their energy (in)dependence, they can either keep up with exploiting coal or transform their energy sectors. Relying on coal is not a long-term option and it has a high price to it – human lives, air, water and soil pollution, as well as threatening nature landscapes and getting into a debt trap. Another possibility is to decentralize, diversify and democratize energy production, with increased usage of environmental-friendly and socially acceptable renewable energy sources. The second option requires support for small energy producers (energy cooperatives owned by local communities), with transformation towards the SMART grid.
In order to ensure transformation of energy sector and development of sustainable SMART network, we need a better cooperation between the countries of this region. This is where the key word – connectivity, kicks in. It’s something we can hear more and more often in various meetings between Western Balkans and EU countries. Since the topic of security was a dominant one in the London Summit within the Berlin Process, better cooperation in the field of energy, between the Western Balkans countries, came out once more as a very important topic.
Connectivity was indeed a key word in the past as well. This word was buzzing all around in 2002 and 2003 as well, when first memorandums of understanding in the field of energy were signed. It was a key word once more in 2006, when the Treaty establishing Energy Community came into force. The very idea of founding the Energy Community, which would lead to creating a unified energy market in the South East Europe, was based on the need for ensuring energy supply security in the region and establishing connections between the regional electricity grids with the ones in the EU. By ratifying the Treaty establishing Energy Community, Serbia has become a part of the inner EU gas and electricity market. This Treaty was one of the very first and, by now, the most important steps of integration of Serbia into the EU.
Cooperation instead of competition
Fitting the countries of this region into a big European energy puzzle is vital because of the strategic position of this region. Due to their position, the countries of this region are a vital part of the energy road. Countries of the Western Balkans can only ensure energy security if they are better interconnected. Diversification of energy supply sources can be the key in dealing with any future energy crisis. One of the examples that comes to mind in order to illustrate this is the gas crisis in 2009, as a result of conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Western Balkans is heavily reliant on oil and gas imports. With Albania as an exception, domestic production is limited and can’t meet the needs. In order to decrease dependence on fossil fuels, it is important to develop domestic renewable energy sources and keep working on decreasing energy consumption. Energy intensity of the countries in this region is very high. With energy intensity higher up to 2,5 times than in the countries of the EU, resulting in slowing the economy down and higher bills for the people. Energy efficiency measures can lead to big energy savings and tackle the issue of energy imports.
The situation in this region is far from ideal, with many conflicts between the states likely to happen. Energy sector isn’t immune to that neither. The lack of political will and communication in this region even resulted in clocks all around Europe running late multiple times, due to inconsistencies between energy systems in the Balkans. However, hopes in better connectivity are restored with examples of solidarity and cross-border cooperation that also happened recently. Improved energy security will come when cooperation takes place instead of competition. Particularly the one related to the military.
Predrag Momčilović, Belgrade Open School
This text is issued in the 40-41st issue of the “Let’s speak about negotations” e-journal, which can be accessed on this link.
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