Beyond Gas Workshop in Budapest

14. September 2018 - Budapest, 1011 Fő utca 44-50

Program Report

The ‘Beyond gas – Energy security issues in the V4 after 2020 project’ hold its mid-term workshop on 14th of September in Budapest. The aim of the Beyond Gas project is to elaborate an initial assessment of a new security of supply concept and its application on the V4 region (with a possibility of extending it to neighbouring countries) in the post 2020 period.

In the first part of the workshop, the mid-term results of the research have been presented. In the second part of the event the invited governmental representatives, industry experts and think tank researchers openly discussed the listed future energy security issues.

The main aim of the project workshop was twofold. First, participants prioritized the list of issues where the V4 countries will face energy security challenges between 2020 and 2030 based on the Draft Country Reports and the interviews conducted with the main stakeholder. Secondly, participants came up with those ones, where coordinated V4 actions could be the most efficient or the most desired solution.

Some of the most important issues selected by the participants: the region is still not beyond gas in term of energy security; increasing need for flexible generation capacities due to the coexistence of renewable energy sources and nuclear energy; diversification among new pipeline projects; the future of coal. Among other things, these issues will be the main topics of further cooperation.

The project was financed by the Visegrad Fund.

Beyond gas

Energy security issues in the V4 after 2020 project

The aim of the project is to elaborate an initial assessment of a new security of supply concept and its application on the V4 region (with a possibility of extending it to neighbouring countries) in the post 2020 period. This period is selected on purpose, as by 2020 numerous regional priority gas infrastructure projects are to be implemented by 2020 which might shift the focus of supply security related regional energy discussions from natural gas to electricity and renewables. In addition, 2020 marks the end of the present EU financing scheme for infrastructure projects in the Region (e.g. CEF closes out).

This new vision itself could define regional energy priorities to help shaping post-2020 EU financing for regional energy projects helping to improve energy security of the V4 countries and to build up a competitive and green energy infrastructure in the region able to cope with the challenges we face in the mid and longer term time horizon.

In order to achieve this aim, the project makes the first step of mapping the problems the various V4 countries face in the longer term time horizon.

Project partners:

Four acknowledged think tanks from each V4 countries (Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA, SK), REKK Foundation (HU), Instytut Jagielloński (PL) and the Association for International Affairs (AMO, CZ)) will take the task to identify and prioritize the most important issues the region facing in the field of energy security beyond 2020.

The project was financed by the Visegrad Fund.