Focus on Energy, 2010 - Karanovic & Nikolic

NEWS ARTICLEMACEDONIANGOVERNMENTDRAFTING NEW ENERGY LAWAuthor: Milan Nedelkovski, SkopjeSource: Energetika.NETRegional Energy Newswww.energetika.net/seeUntil the end of the following year,2010, the Macedonian governmentis to adopt a new EnergyLaw that will be in compliancewith European standards. TheMinister of Economy, Fatmir Besimi,announced that the new lawwould cancel out the unfavourableremarks received from the European Energy Community.“The Republic of Macedonia is giving a clear signalthat is stepping forward with the reforms in the energysector, for further compliance with EU directives,” Besimisaid.The Energy Community South East Europe Treaty,which has its headquarters in Vienna and is supportedby the European Union, criticised Macedonia concerningthe country’s energy sector reforms, placing particularstress on the decreasing market liberalisation andthe un-equal treatment of companies operating in theenergy sphere, and the favouring of the services of MacedonianPower Plants (ELEM) over the Austrian distributorof electricity EVN.“Principles for the price of energy and principles that referto the equal treatment for all companies have beendiscussed. So, all these aspects have been foreseen withinthe law and the bylaws,” said Besimi.The adopted action plan by the government foreseesadopting the Draft New Energy Law until the end of thisyear. Public discussion will follow. The Energy Law is expectedto become effective from 2011, and until then allprocedures for adopting the bylaws are expected to befinished. German RWE remains interested in buildinghydropower plants in MacedoniaAfter several unsuccessful tender procedures for BoškovMost, Vardarska Dolina, Čebren and Galište, foreign companiesare still interested in investing in the undevelopedenergy sector in Macedonia. The German RWE statedthat it could again bid for Čebren and Galište, but that itwould first go through the terms of the new tender procedureand then would need to calculate the economicjustifications of the investment.RWE management pointed out that the company wouldnot give up its intention to invest in building the two hydroelectricpower plants Čebren and Galište, with capacitiesworth about 500 million euro.“We are gathering the documents for the tender. Now,we should consider the option to participate, but we stillhave not taken a decision; we are still analysing the situation,”an RWE representative said.The dispute between ELEM and EVN may influence thedecision of RWE of whether to invest in Macedonia.“As every foreign investor, we will also closely observethe EVN-ELEM process. I cannot say whether that willhave negative or positive consequences, but I hope thatthis process will come to an end soon,” the RWE representativesaid.55FOCUS ON ENERGY