Prishtina, 07.07.2016 – The ten-year Energy Strategy will be ready by the end of this month, said the Minister of Economic Development, Blerand Stavileci, and added that it includes seven alternatives for power supply, always bearing in mind affordable tariffs, namely the prices for consumers.

Minister Stavileci made these comments today during a roundtable discussion on the topic Kosovo’s Energy Vision 2040, organized by KFOS and Riinvest, and added that the mosaic of our country’s energy mix consists of seven major parts and seven criteria.

“We have Kosova e Re, Kosovo B, Kosovo A, Efficiency, Renewable Resources, Interconnection and Soft Measures, hence this seven has no alternative,” said Stavileci, adding that changes are constant thus people, the state and the society must adapt to such changes, balancing all interests.

Minister Stavileci said to the participants that affordable bills of citizens of Kosovo is an issue of special importance and priority for the Government, and that the Government is opting for the best options for the lives of citizens.

“Before signing the Agreement for TPP “Kosova e Re”, we have made 11 exceptions, which we have defined as red lines and the three main ones are; security of supply, price affordability and environment”, said Minister Stavileci, adding that the alternatives were then reviewed on the basis of these three criteria.

Minister also said that in Paris, Prime Ministers of Kosovo and Albania adopted two documents relevant to this sector, the ‘Sustainable Charter” which is related to the energy and states that our goal should be; merging markets with at least one country in the region, creation of Energy Scholarships, and in October we will introduce the scholarship offered by Kosova and Albania, as co-founders.

On the other hand, Luan Shllaku from KFOS said that Kosovo has a significant need for a long-term energy strategy of at least 40 years to ensure development in this sector. Shllaku also insisted that the Government focuses towards Dukagjin to extract lignite so that Obiliq is not the only place where lignite is extracted.

Meanwhile, the section chief for cooperation with the European Commission, Libor Chad, said that it is important for Kosovo to have a credible strategy with a long-term vision, which will undoubtedly find support from the European Commission.

On the other hand, the Director of Research at Riinvest Institute, Alban Hashani, said that Kosovo has issues with growing its economy, and according to him it can not be increased without improving its competitiveness and the latter cannot be done without improving the energy sector.