Energy & transport international relations

In October 1999, the energy ministers of the Baltic Sea region countries and the European Commission decided in their conference in Helsinki to set up the Baltic Sea Region Energy Co-operation (BASREC). The countries participating in BASREC are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. The Commission is a full member represented by DG Energy and Transport.

The main issues addressed are security of energy supply and the growing dependency from Russia, gas transit routes, progress on electricity and gas interconnection, energy efficiency, climate change, and renewable energies.

Andris Piebalgs, Energy Commissioner, attended Ministerial Conference organised within the framework of BASREC, 28 October 2005: “BASREC has played, and should continue to play, a key role in the EU's Northern Dimension policies”.

Andris Piebalgs spoke at the Baltic Gas Seminar in Vilnius, on 8 May 2006. “The EU gas market developments: the case of the Baltic Sea Region countries”