The meeting of the Energy Ministers of BSEC member states was preceded by the 2-day meeting of the BSEC Working Group on Energy, on April 7-8, and over 50 high-level energy officials from BSEC members and observers - including the Energy Charter Secretariat - participated in the combined Ministerial and Working Group meetings.

Taking into account that eleven out of the twelve member countries of the BSEC are also members of the Energy Charter Treaty, "all signatories of the Energy Charter Treaty - and its BSEC members in particular - thus already have a joint foundation of binding rules on which more specific agreements on a project basis or regional basis can be built, be it for oil, gas or electricity," commented Energy Charter Secretariat members on behalf of the Secretary General André Mernier during the meeting.

The full statement made by the Energy Charter Secretariat on behalf of the Secretary General is available here.

BSEC came into existence in June 1992 as a unique and promising model of multilateral political and economic initiative aimed at fostering interaction and harmony among the member states, as well as to ensure peace, stability and prosperity encouraging friendly and good-neighbourly relations in the Black Sea region. The BSEC headquarters and its Permanent International Secretariat was established in March 1994 in Istanbul. More in-depth information about BSEC is available here.

BSEC is currently exploring the possibilities of developing legally binding instruments in the field of energy and the BSEC Secretariat is looking at existing experiences that can be applied within the BSEC framework. In this respect, instruments developed within the Energy Charter Process appear to be an appropriate model to review. The Energy Charter Secretariat would be very pleased to cooperate with the BSEC Secretariat in this area and deepen cooperation between the two bodies in the promotion of mutual interests in the future.