7th Energy Forum – Climate policy and competitiveness of the EU economy

The motto of the 7th Energy Forum will be analysis of the energy policy of the European Union. Discussion will focus on the issues of financing big energy projects, cross-border infrastructure, energy-climate package, changes in the gas market caused by the U.S. shale gas revolution and the future of nuclear energy. The conference will be attended by the representatives of the most important European institutions and the energy sector, regulatory bodies and experts from the most important European analytical centres. The Forum will take place between the 29th of November and 1st of December in Sopot.  

The Forum will be opened by the plenary session "Financing big energy projects – who will pay for it?" attended by the most important players in the European energy market, who have announced their participation. The topic of the session corresponds to the current discussions about the sources of financing key investment in the energy sector. The above mentioned issue was mentioned by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the beginning of his parliamentary speech. The head of the Polish government announced realization of PLN 60 billion investment in the energy security of Poland until 2020. The above mentioned investment will be composed of energy blocks and a gas terminal, among other things. Prime Minister Tusk announced also a programme of "Polish investment" – whose operator is going to be Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK). He emphasized also that until 2015, the government would like to build investment potential at the level of PLN 40 billion.

In response to reviving discussion about the influence of EU climate policy on the competitiveness of the economies of European Community countries, the first day of the Forum will include a debate: „Energy policy and the goals of the EU climate policy”. The climate policy of the EU gives the Polish electric energy sector an impulse for development of technologies applied in clean energy production by imposing on the producers fees for CO2 emissions. Participation in the debate has been announced, inter alia, by Marcin Korolec, Minister of Environment; Dirk Buschle, Legal Councillor and Deputy Director in German Energy Community; Aleksander Wasilenko, Deputy Chairman of Natural Resources and Ecology Committee in Russian State Duma, Antonio Ramos Preto, Chairman of Environment Committee in Portuguese Parliament.

Besides of discussion panels, the agenda of the Forum will include for the first time the form of subject areas - report, lecture, debate. Participation in the following subject areas: "Natural, liquid or shale gas – which gas is Europe likely to live on?"; "Infrastructure and cross-border investment in the energy sector "; Nuclear energy – competition or cooperation? has been announced by Mikołaj Budzanowski, Minister of State Treasury, Janusz Steinhoff, Chairman of the Programme Council, Polish Chamber of Commerce; Mieczysław Kasprzak, Secretary of State, Ministry of Economy; Andrzej Czerwiński Chairman of Energy Committee in Polish Parliament; and also presidents and members of management boards of the biggest energy concerns, such as Mladen Antunović, President of the Board of Directors, Plinacro d.o.o., Croatia; Miroslaw Bielinski, President of the Board of Directors, ENERGA; Sergiej Bojarkin , Programme Director for Management of Engineering Projects of Rosatom, Jan Chadam, President of the Board of Directors, GAZ-SYSTEM S.A; Jiri Feist, Director for Strategy, Energeticky a prumyslovy holding, a.s. (EPH); Aleksander Grad, President of the Board of Directors, PGE Energia Jądrowa Sp. z o.o. ; Dariusz Lubera, President of the Board of Directors, Tauron Polska Energia SA; Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa, President of the Board of Directors, PGNiG SA; Konstantin Staschus, Secretary General, European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E), Belgium; Giulio Trombetta, Business Development Director, ENEL, Italy.

Partners of Energy Forum: ENERGA Group, Energia dla firm Sp. z o.o, PERN „Przyjaźń” S.A., Operator Logistyczny Paliw Płynnych sp. z o.o., NAFTOPORT Sp. z o.o.

The For­­­­um is organized by Warsaw-based Institute for Eastern Studies, the organizer of the Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdroj. Participation in the conference is free of charge. You can sign up for the conference by filling the form on the website: www.forum-ekonomiczne.pl