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The Eastern Partnership program has all chances to become an effective platform for strengthening energy security not only of the EU but also of the whole Europe. On one side, five partner states are essential to ensure energy security of the EU.

1. Ukraine, as a key oil and gas transit to the European Union from the East, as reflected in the Memorandum between Ukraine and the European Union concerning cooperation in energy sector dated 01.12.2005 and the Brussels Declaration dated 23.03.2009.

2. Azerbaijan, as a supplier of oil (Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan) and potentially gas (Baku - Tbilisi - Erzurum), as well as oil and gas transit from the Eastern Caspian and, under certain circumstances (implementation of the White Stream), part of the Iranian gas.

3. Georgia, as exclusive transit country for Caspian oil and gas to the European Union market.

4. Belarus as a transit country for oil (“North” Friendship) and gas (Yamal - Europe).

5. Moldova, as the transit country for gas to Southern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Balkans).

On the other hand, the proliferation of legal bases of energy markets’ functioning on the EU Partner States will help to overcome the negative aspects of national energy sectors (corruption, inadequate technology, and low energy efficiency).

More than a year after the official start of cooperation between the EU and six Partner States of the Eastern Partnership program and since the first steps of Poland and Sweden on the initiative almost three are over. During this time, several important events have been taken place which has confirmed the importance and necessity of including the energy sector in the list of priorities of cooperation between the EU and Partner States. The most significant was the gas crisis of the January 2009 between Russia and Ukraine, which showed that the issues of energy security in Europe have already higher status as simply bilateral relations between the states and moved into the category of international relations’ key elements as an element of global security. In particular, Article 8 of the Joint Declaration of the Prague Eastern Partnership Summit defines: “The Eastern Partnership aims to strengthen energy security through cooperation with regard to long-term stable and secure energy supply and transit, including through better regulation, energy efficiency and more use of renewable energy sources. Provisions on energy interdependence could be included in the new Association Agreements or other bilateral arrangements between the EU and the partner countries. Energy cooperation should take into account the EU's Second Strategic Energy Review and each partner country's energy policy”.

Issues of energy cooperation within the “Eastern partnership” are in sphere of competence of the third thematic platform “Energy Security”. In order to organize its work effectively, at the first thematic platform meeting a work plan was adopted with a period of validity till 2011 and aims to achieve four key goals. In practice, however, the success is observed in only two of them:

I. Encourage the development and implementation of mutual energy support and security mechanisms, including early warning mechanisms and joint security actions

The results of the four Third Thematic Platform meetings showed in the context of achieving this goal, that representatives of all participating countries only were able to present their vision of energy security of supply situation in their respective countries. Also, most participants expressed willingness to discuss specific projects to link the partner states. There are all achievements of this thematic platform as for present time.

However, it should be noted, that there was an initiative to establish practical mechanisms to prevent energy crises, in particular suggested by Ukraine. This is the introduction of pan-European approach to energy security through multilateral mechanisms for early warning and joint actions. During Ukrainian-Spanish negotiations of the foreign ministers in Madrid, which took place on January 10-11, 2010, Petro Poroshenko raised the question of establishing an early warning mechanism of energy crisis in the trilateral format Russia - Ukraine - European Union. The Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos as the representative of the state that took over presidency of the EU since January 2010 took with interest this proposal and during his visit to Moscow on January 12, 2010 and negotiations with his Russian counterpart S. Lavrov raised the issue of establishing such mechanism in the proposed format. According to available information, in general the Russian side reacted favourably on the proposal, which is evidenced by position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation - Mr. Sergey Lavrov, expressed at the press conference in Brussels on October 19, 2009 after meeting of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council: “We are convinced that we should find a solution, including so-called early warning scheme, early warning on trilateral basis with the participation of the main producer, main transit player and main consumers. We are convinced, that the solution should be found taking into account balance of interests of all sides of this triangle”.

At the same time in spring 2009 the European Commission and Russia intensified discussions in their bilateral energy dialogue aimed at creating a bilateral early warning mechanism. On November 16, 2009 “Memorandum on an Early Warning Mechanism in the Energy Sector within the Framework of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue” was signed in Moscow. The Memorandum foresees implementation of joint measures to prevent and respond quickly in the event of any likely situations of emergency in the energy sector, including disruptions of gas supply. According to the comments of the Minister of Energy of Russia, who signed the Memorandum from the Russian side, “[Memorandum] establishes a formalized communication technology of the Russian Federation and the European Union to notify each other about possible risks, their concerns, and launches mechanism for coordinated actions”.

The European Union put high hopes on the Energy Charter Treaty as regulatory basis for energy relations in Europe. But it does not establish a single legal framework for all actors; on the contrary, there are two different legal regimes under the Treaty between them: the EU and some partner states including Ukraine use the ECT on a regular basis and in full, while other, in particular the Russian Federation applies the provisions of the ECT on a provisional basis to the extent limited by Russian domestic law.

As an integral element of multilateral early warning mechanism an objective method of controlling the real situation in the relevant energy fields should be used. The weight of evidence suggests that proclamation and implementation of the Energy Transparency Regime (ERT), which will cover the whole technological chain from production to consumption, could become an effective mechanism for strengthening energy security on the European continent. This initiative should be based on the fundamental right to know. Consumers in each country (Russia, Ukraine, EU member countries) are entitled to know parameters of energy supplies, because they pay for them. Sectoral forms of this Regime should cover all energy flows – gas (ETR-gas), oil (ETR-oil), electricity (ETR-electricity).

This will allow objective monitoring of the situation in the energy sector during the whole technological chain from production to consumption.

II. Support for infrastructure development, interconnection and diversification of supply

In this context, the EU proposal was reflected in a number of resolutions aimed to develop interconnections and relevant contractual framework between the EU Member States to assist each other in case of problems with energy supplies via traditional directions . Also financial assistance was proposed to national governments through international financial institutions, which can be regarded as an important stimulus for the development of energy sector in a number of EU member states . However, these initiatives do not apply to EU Partner States, which reduces the effectiveness of their implementation for strengthening energy security and calls into question the appropriateness of the energy dimension of the Eastern Partnership program. According to the above mentioned key goal II, it is necessary to create a unified gas supply system of the EU involving Partner States, which technically would be able to provide the necessary circulation of gas resources from the storage sites to regions with deficit. The basic component could be underground gas storage facilities (UGSF), for instance on the western border of Ukraine.

Other two core objectives are more favourable for the EU, but most of partner states are less interested in. Also they are long-term to be implemented and bring little impact on the strengthening of the European energy security in common sense.

So, under Promotion of increased energy efficiency and use of renewable resources there is an initiative of the EBRD to finance energy efficiency projects in partner states. The Swedish government came also with an initiative of the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership . Providing great possibilities for partner states in enhancing energy efficiency, both initiatives are from the very beginning depending of the good will of the relevant national government and can only restrictedly influence global situation with energy security in Europe.

Under Regulatory framework and approximation of energy policies during the mentioned period only Moldova and Ukraine were able to implement appropriate legislation, needed to join European Energy Community. It is still a question, if adopted legislation corresponds in full with what was expected.

Conclusion

The Eastern Partnership program in 2010 developed primarily its institutional elements. In 2011 it is time to begin with implementation of some tasks entrusted to the thematic platforms, as well as preparing and implementation of the flagship initiatives. Leading role in this activity can take on Poland, as one of the young but already influential EU member states during its EU presidency by announcing this intention among the priorities of its program activities. Given its close cooperation with Hungary, who will chair the EU in the first half of 2011, both countries could provide a preliminary consultation with all stakeholders and prepare for the next summit of the Eastern Partnership in May 2011 a framework document on the multilateral early warning mechanism for prevention and avoidance of energy crises.

If such a document and approved at the next Eastern Partnership summit of the EU and partner states, it can become a key achievement of the event and show the effectiveness of the two-year activities of the Eastern Partnership program in the energy sector.

This article first appeared on the website of Petroleum Industry Review.