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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Cooperation in energy sector in interest of countries in region

Belgrade, 2 November 2012

Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said today that investment in energy ensures progress of the whole society and stressed the need for countries in the region to jointly exploit the energy resources they own.

At a press conference held after the meeting withSerbian Minister of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection Zorana Mihajlovic, Minister of Economy of Montenegro Vladimir Kavaric and Minister of Industry, Energy and Mines of the Republika Srpka Zeljko Kovacevic, Dacic said that energy is a major development chance for Serbia.

The Drina River and other rivers that flow through the region's countries have a huge energy potential that we should use jointly, the Prime Minister said and gave full support to the expansion of cooperation of Serbia with Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska in energy.

According to Dacic, some joint projects are ready to go ahead and the aim is to have them completed so that, after the mandate of the current government, new power plants could be erected.

Dacic said that a large number of companies from Germany, United States, Canada, Italy, China, Japan, Hungary and the Czech Republic are interested in investing in various energy projects in the region.

The Prime Minister expressed his hope that the realisation of a big project in the field of energy – construction of the South Stream pipeline – will start next month.

Mihajlovic said that at today’s meeting with representatives of Republika Srpska and Montenegro it was agreed that in the future, all energy projects will be done with agreement and consultation by all three parties. She added that the meeting looked at energy projects such as construction of hydroelectric power plants on upper and middle reaches of the Drina River and in Brodarevo.

The Minister noted that cooperation in the field of energy is in the interest of all sides since it represents a driving force of economic development.

At the same time, she added that the energy agreement between Serbia and Italy has been withdrawn from the parliament procedure in order to be elaborated, and expressed her hope that energy projects planned by this agreement will be implemented. She explained that this agreement cannot be changed substantially, but the list of projects whose realisation is planned will be completed through annexes. Mihajlovic announced that a working group of the relevant ministry will visit Italy on 7-8November where the priority list will be established, adding that a lower purchase price of electricity will be discussed.

Kavaric noted that energy and energy potential are the most important comparative advantage of Montenegro, Serbia and Republika Srpska, and pointed out that the projects in the energy sector can be realised only through joint efforts of countries in the region.

Kovacevic stated that in today's talks it was assessed that there are no obstacles for the implementation of projects on the middle reaches of the Drina River and that they should be speeded up, and announced that the host of a meeting of this kind will be Republika Srpska.