Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the fourth international meeting on the safe and sustainable energy transit:
This fourth international meeting of experts will serve as a platform for political dialogue between governments and international institutions.
At this meeting, we come with a positive balance sheet in the energy sector, because we had to prevent the sector from going bankrupt. We have made significant progress in the energy sector. For some time now, we have become increasingly active in roundtables like this one, and are gaining a lot of respect for the work that we have done in reforming the sector, but also for the credibility that we have created in the sense that we are now a trustworthy actor, based on our very important potential and the development of the energy sector.
Let me give you two numbers, so that you can get a sense of what I mean. Three years ago, our Power Distribution Company marked 52% loss in the network, and from 2007 to 2013, the company accumulated $ 1 billion in debt, because people and businesses would steal energy, or simply would not pay for the energy they used.
The other very important figure is that we managed to enter approximately 350 thousand new agreements between the Energy Distribution Company and customers, based on the common sense that energy should be compensated and that debt should be paid. So, for the first time, we did not subsidise the energy company in 2015. The company used to be subsidised by the government, to compensate for energy losses that amounted to approximately $ 150 million per year, which is too much for our budget.
For the first time, we did not had have to pay a penny, and this because the company had a new administration and also because of a new approach that people have had based on this common sense. In this way we managed to have today a positive balance sheet.
On the other hand I am very proud to be here, along with two very distinguished managers, the manager of the Distribution Company and the manager of the Transmission Company, who also has done a fantastic job. Three years ago, we were very far from being a 21st century country in terms of the transmission management infrastructure. Today we have a fantastic centre for the control and management of the transmission system.
This meeting here after the meetings in Ashgabat, in Brussels and Beijing, makes us very proud and comes at a decisive moment, when the complex geopolitical crises endanger energy security and are threatening to create long-term consequences in the area of energy security for Europe and also for the countries of the Mediterranean.
We are very aware that after the gas crisis in 2009, the focus of the European Union on diversifying energy resources and routes of energy is absolutely very important.
The creation of the Southern Corridor of energy is crucial in this overall European strategy to get out of a frame of dependence in terms of energy for geopolitically unstable regions. But at the same time it is very important to say that the European Union’s energy security cannot be achieved without guaranteeing a sustainable Mediterranean both politically and economically because, as we all know, 65% of oil and gas routes to Europe come from the Mediterranean area. Also, everybody knows that for geopolitical reasons, Russia and some of the exporting countries in the Middle East are no longer able to export the same amount of energy to Europe. Similarly, the British oil production in the North Sea has started to decrease, slowly but steadily, since 1999, and the Norwegian production of oil and gas has been going down since 2001.
This overall decline occurs while in the European Union, the average energy consumption is 2% higher, every year, since 20 years now. And if the numbers our Ministry has provided me are correct, in Mediterranean countries, the demand for energy is expected to grow by 40% by 2030, and in some of them it will double. In addition, the population is expected to grow by 30%.
So the overall picture looks quite gloomy, but at the same time it is very clear that there are alternatives, and the way how diversification is designed is the right way.
In these circumstances, TAP is a very important project, because the strategy of the Southern Ring of Power goes through it. This pipeline will drastically increase the amount of gas available to the European energy market, allowing a considerable number of European countries to not be dependent on a single source for natural gas.
The planned extension of the pipeline to join the EU beyond the Caspian basin, Central Asia and the Middle East, will increase dramatically the number of the beneficiaries in three continents.
But, let me touch and the other aspect of this story, because for us it is very important. We firmly believe that, in addition to major projects, it is absolutely crucial that we deepen regional cooperation.
The process of interaction between the EU and the Western Balkans, launched in Berlin three years ago, has created a completely new horizon to deepen energy cooperation in our region. Energy cooperation is one of the main pillars of this process. So part of this cooperation are the two extensions of TAP on the seaside to the Ionian-Adriatic pipeline, which will reach up to Croatia, and to Kosovo on the east side. We are very committed to both projects and are working hard to find a way to finance that.
On the other hand, we are very happy to finally have the interconnection line with Kosovo. We must solve a problem that is still pending between Kosovo and Serbia in this regard, but during our meeting in Paris with my Serbian counterpart we made some good progress in this aspect, and I am very hopeful that everything will be solved within this year. This is what I got from him. This line is a fantastic example of what potential there is in the regional cooperation.
Third and last, the Government has started the process for the creation of the Albanian Energy Stock Market. We firmly believe that this will open a new chapter in the joint cooperation and also in regional cooperation.
We believe that this initiative will spread fast in the region, to create a unique regional stock market that will allow countries to take advantage from the best prices in the market. In this context, we will guarantee financing for high-voltage line between Albania and Macedonia, an energy highway that will connect through our countries, Turkey with Italy and Central Europe.
It is important to see that also the EU highlights the importance of the regional cooperation and integration of the energy market in the Mediterranean, as a very important pillar for the overall economic development in this area in the coming decades.
Let me conclude with a quote from a Chinese artist, which fits very well this meeting, and I hope also what I said. It is a famous Chinese artist, Yo-Yo Ma who said: “We can learn more about each other, if we are keen to go in depth about who is surrounding us.”
Thank you very much for this opportunity to listen to and to salute all of you. I hope that beyond this artificially lighted space, you will have the opportunity to enjoy naturally lighted space in the seaside, which is not very far. So, if you can, please do it because energy is very important and a very important reason to come to Albania, but the beauty of this country is an even more important reason. So, come back with your families, your friends, not to talk about the future, but to enjoy the present because it often happens that we talk much about the future, and forget to enjoy the very present.
Many thanks!
