Even without new renewables targets, the deployment of green electricity has been increasing in many Contracting Parties. Illustrating this positive trend, some Contracting Parties such as Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro managed to achieve remarkable results with auctioning their support schemes, or even doing without subsidies. Persevering with administratively allocated support, on the other hand, led to crises and investor- state disputes, particularly in Ukraine. Support for the renewable energy source that affects the environment in the most adverse manner, small hydropower plants, increasingly faces opposition in several Contracting Parties and may eventually cease altogether.

And even in the area of market opening and integration, where the Western Balkan countries have come close to a standstill over the last years, the Contracting Parties in Eastern Europe have shown remarkable dynamics. 2020 saw the youngest member of the Energy Community, Georgia, be particularly active in this respect. Ukraine, which had unbundled its gas transmission system operator at the end of 2019, harvested the fruit of this achievement by concluding a new gas transit agreement with Russian Gazprom. And finally, most Contracting Parties’ utilities, operators and authorities, supported by the Energy Community and international donors, passed the test of Covid-19 rather well and deserve a great deal of praise for that.

Source: State of implementation 2020; https://www.energy-community.org/implementation/IR2020.html