Resolving CEZ conflict

The Minister of Energy, Damian Gjiknuri, says that and agreement through direct negotiations would be the best solution of the conflict with the Czech owners of CEZ, after the previous government removed their license on January 2013.

According to Gjiknuri, resolving the conflict in international courts would bring negative effects on Albania.

“There will be huge financial consequences. Unfortunately, the previous government has done nothing in the past 8-9 months, and they haven’t even continued with the expropriation procedures or negotiated for resolving this conflict, by making Albania’s position even more difficult. The solution of this conflict on international courts would take several years, and that means that no investments will be made during this time in the network. This would reflect in the entire energy system and its financial crisis”, Gjiknuri declared.

For Minister Gjiknuri, the Czechs failed to hold their part of the agreement with the Albanian government, while the Albanian party should have kept the company under control so that they could implement the agreement conditions.

“The privatization of the distribution system has failed, and no full guarantee has been given. The Albanian state did not force this company on time to make the scheduled investments”, Gjiknuri declared.

One of the most important steps will be the talks with the Czech party, such as evaluating the state in which the Czech left this company in Albania.

“The first thing that the Albanian state should have done, right after the license procedures started, was making a technical and financial assessment of the situation. We will do it so that we can sit and talk with the Czech [party, we can present a real situation of how we found CEZ, the company that it was their responsibility to administer and have it as an instrument in the negotiation”, Gjiknuri declared.

Avoiding the international court, according to the Minister of Energy, would help in not deteriorating the financial crisis in which the current Albanian system is in.

“The weakest point of the financial collapse is the distribution, because it accumulates the biggest abuses. Unfortunately, we have a record-breaking level of the lost energy in the network. This means that the system doesn’t have enough money to pay the other actors of the system, such as the Transmission System Operator and the Albanian Energy Corporation. The latter is in a very difficult financial situation. The Albanian government is determined to review this stratedy and come out with concrete measures, so that Albania can overcome the financial crisis that also brings a financial energy situation”, Gjiknuri declared.

TOP Channel, 21.10.2013