Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo Moldova Montenegro North Macedonia Serbia Ukraine Georgia Armenia (observer) Norway (observer) The Energy Community, commonly referred to as the Energy Community for South East Europe (ECSEE),[2][3] is an international organization consisting of the European Union (EU) and a number of non-EU countries.

The 2021 Ministerial Council adopted five key legislative acts[6] stemming from the EU's Clean energy for all Europeans package.

[7] Renewables, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030 will be adopted at the next Ministerial Council in 2022, following the finalization of a study by the European Commission.

In doing so, the EU member state has the right to attend the Ministerial Council, the Permanent High Level Group, the Regulatory Board and the fora and participate in the discussions in these bodies.

This privilege is used by 19 EU member states, namely Following their accession to the European Union, three of the original treaty signatories, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, have matured from a Contracting Party to a Participant.

For the period of 1 January to 31 December 2021, Serbia holds the presidency in office and chairs the key institutional meetings.

The Permanent High Level Group brings together senior officials from each Contracting Party and two representatives of the European Commission.

It advises the Energy Community Ministerial Council and Permanent High Level Group (PHLG) on details of statutory, technical and regulatory rules and makes recommendations in the case of cross-border disputes between regulators.

The Secretariat supports the Contracting Parties in the drafting of legislation and conducts expert missions when requested by the national authorities.

Each year the Secretariat submits an Annual Implementation Report[15] to the Ministerial Council of the Energy Community, which assesses the compliance of each Contracting Party with respect to its obligations under the treaty.

The director of the Secretariat is responsible for ensuring that the Energy Community budget – to which all Parties contribute – is correctly spent and accounted for.

The European Commission assists the Presidency in the chairing of the Permanent High Level Group and the Ministerial Council and the preparation of agendas of all institutional meetings.

To this end, the establishment of the Energy Community represents a very important political step in a key economic sector before the accession of the SEE countries to the EU.

It was proposed by the European Union and it outlined the principles and the institutional necessities for regional electricity market development in South East Europe.

Following intense discussions, an agreement was reached at the first South East Europe Electricity Regulation Forum in June 2002.

The signing of the memorandum took place in November 2002 by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, FYR of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Turkey.

In October 2013, the Energy Community Ministerial Council[21] unilaterally decided to extend the duration of the treaty by ten years, to 2026.

On this occasion, the Ministerial Council also established a High Level Reflection Group, which was mandated to assess the adequacy of the institutional set up and working methods of the Energy Community in achieving the objectives of the Treaty.

[23] The Energy Community acquis makes an explicit reference to public service obligations and customer protection.

Environmental organizations from south-eastern Europe criticized the process in December 2008 as they believed that the ECSEE contains insufficient safeguard mechanisms to ensure that the well-intentioned promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy is not drowned out by the promotion of large and often environmentally harmful coal and hydropower plants.