Georgia is becoming a full-fledged member of Energy Community in 2017, following the ratification of the accession agreement by the Parliament of Georgia. The reforms place high demand on policymakers and other stakeholders for capacity building and overcoming the potential impediments to reforms. Awareness raising of wider public is an important task for civil society in order to generate an integral approach and reduce the barriers to the strategic development of the industry in line with the European standards. World Experience for Georgia's project implemented in cooperation with the South Caucasus regional office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation addressed the mentioned problem and aimed to facilitate energy reforms in Georgia through public and civil society awareness raising that hopefully will increase policy impact of civil society in policymaking process.
Accountability, transparency of energy data and information is critical in the energy reform process. Transparency is the key obligation under the Association Agreement and precondition, for the reform towards open and competitive energy market, as well as for elimination of security risks from hidden influences. Clear and robust data enable experts to monitor and guarantee efficient implementation of the reforms. Currently there is an urgent need to clearly formulate and agree the rational principles, criteria and requirements for categorizing the energy information as confidential, classified or open access. Therefore the second important aspect of the project was to contribute to elimination of the grey areas and assure public access to energy data and information in line with the EU standards and international best practices.
Project Objectives and implemented activities:
Objective 1:
- Dissemination of information to contribute to awareness raising on energy issues and reforms needed
- Monthly seminars to discuss baseline, barriers and expected reforms under Energy Community Treaty (EnC). Dissemination of knowledge about the technical implementation of EU directives and their outcomes
Objective 2:
- Participation of Georgian CSO representatives in Energy Community meetings
Objective 3:
- Study The European Energy Union and Reforms in Energy Sector of Georgia was implemented and published.
