European Energy Community Imposes Sanctions on B&H

The European Energy Community has imposed sanctions on B&H, as confirmed by Janez Kopac, the director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community.

The reason is the violation of the directive on sulfur in fuels and failure to comply with energy packages concerning energy and gas.

– It is true that sanctions have been imposed on B&H and that it will not take part in making decisions on the issues of the budget of the European Energy Community and the implementation of the budget over a period of two years, unless it removes said violations in the meantime – Kopac said.

The decision on the sanctions was adopted in late 2020, and the Energy Community published its content on Thursday. There were several previous warnings that B&H might be penalized for violating international regulations.

Among the reasons cited is that it is only in B&H of all the member states of the Energy Community that Euro 3 can still be used, whereas the European standard is Euro 5.

B&H allows a higher content of sulfur in oil products in order to support the local production in the Brod Refinery.

Another reason is that no law has been adopted on the regulator of electrical energy and natural gas, distribution and market of electrical energy.

Such a law has been undergoing the necessary procedure since 2017, but the previous Council of the Ministers sent different materials to the entities, so a harmonization was impossible. According to the law, the plan is for the competence when it comes to the gas to be put on the Regulatory Commission for Electrical Energy DERK.

European Energy Community

Brod Refinery

Janez Kopač

energy package on gas

energy sanctions BiH

sulfur in oil products

law on regulator of electrical energy and natural gas

electricity distribution

electricity market

Euro 3 standard

Euro 5 standard