Study visit in Ankara

Strengthening the EU – Turkey Energy Dialogue in the Context of Energy Security and Governance Risks in the Black Sea Region

In the context of the EU Energy Union, Turkey is placed strategically to assist in its goals of bringing about energy market integration and meaningful diversification of sources in Southeast Europe and the Black Sea region. Despite EU’s activism for developing a multilateral approach for the integration and liberalization of energy markets in Europe, Turkey and the countries in the Black Sea region still pursue mostly a bilateral approach to energy security, which is insufficient for the development of a strategic regional energy security partnership between EU and Turkey. Addressing the region’s energy challenges, it is important to strengthen the EU-Turkey energy policy dialogue for developing a common understanding for the constraints stemming from the current segmented approach to energy security and governance issues and the identification of the multilateral mechanisms that can be utilized to strengthen the overall energy security architecture.

The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), and the Mediterranean Energy Observatory (OME) aim to strengthen the energy dialogue between EU and Turkey by organizing a series of high-level policy meetings between key energy policy-makers from the European Commission and senior officials from the Turkish energy ministry, the energy regulator and major local energy companies. The meetings have taken place on January 24^th, 2017 in Ankara following an expert workshop on energy security and governance on January 23^rd, 2017. The policy discussions were moderated by representatives from CSD, TEPAV and OME and focused on the ways the EU and Turkey could cooperate more closely on energy security, energy market integration, and the improvement of energy governance in Turkey along with the lines of the EU energy acquis. The EU officials were able to present their latest thinking following the Winter Energy Package, which could provide new impetus for joint initiatives with Turkey. In the scope of the study visit, meetings were held with the officials from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) as well as with the experts from business representatives in Ankara.