In its pilot stage, during 2021, the Barometer of Sustainable Energy Transition will assess the preparedness for the energy sector transition in BiH, Montenegro, and Serbia. The Barometer will be developed by about 20 experts comprising the project’s core team and a further 80 expert representatives of all key actors in the region as part of a wider team. Work on developing the methodology for the Barometer has identified the fundamental problems hindering the region’s energy transition as well as missteps on the part of the European Commission and the Energy Community (EnC).

“The intention is for the work on the Barometer to produce a consensus among the participants regarding the preparedness of the states to carry out a sustainable energy transition,” Mirza Kušljugić, a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Tuzla and chairman of the RESET Regional Center for Sustainable Energy Transition, has told Balkan Green Energy News.

Apart from Kušljugić, the team developing the Barometer’s methodology comprises Damir Miljević, energy transition consultant from BiH, who is also a member of the RESET board, and Miroslav Vujnović, a financial consultant from Serbia with expertise in energy.

REPCONS 2.0 builds on the Renewable Energy Policy Consensus – REPCONS project, which was successfully wrapped up last year. REPCONS 1.0 has demonstrated that the region has experts capable of defining energy transition models and sent a message to decision makers, the expert community, and the wider public that if  countries in the region fail to define their own models, then someone else will do it for them, which would not be a good solution.

Professor Mirza Kušljugić recalls that reforms in the energy sector in the Western Balkans have been ongoing since the establishment of the Energy Community in 2006, but that the contracting parties have mainly failed to meet the commitments they have made.

For this reason, according to him, the question remains – why, even after 15 years, is there no substantial progress in reforming the energy sectors based on market principles and in compliance with environmental protection standards?

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