The Energy Charter Secretariat held a seminar on "Hydrocarbons Development and Transportation across Borders: Investment, Market Structure and Integration" in Damascus, Syria, on 19 June 2008. The seminar was organised in cooperation and with the financial support of the European Commission and the Euro-Arab Mashreq Gas Cooperation Centre, together with generous contributions from Shell and Total.

The seminar focused on investment, market structure and integration of the Mashreq gas sector initiatives and the European Union energy markets. Discussions were held on the new gas industry environment for energy investments in the Mashreq region and beyond. The seminar also addressed ways of mitigating risks associated with investments, with a special focus on building competitive gas markets in the Mashreq and integrating them with the internal European gas markets.

The Energy Charter Secretariat, the IEA and the UNECE have held a joint conference on "International Cooperation on Energy Efficiency: Working together for a Low-carbon Economy" in Geneva on 28 May 2008. More than 150 participants from five continents gathered in the Palais des Nations to spur global action on energy efficiency.

The conference focused on priority areas for international cooperation on energy efficiency, and encouraged governments and industry to identify frameworks for action in order to single out key practical steps for different market players to promote the necessary investment, technology uptake and other steps needed to make significant and rapid improvements in energy efficiency.

The Task Force on Regional Electricity Cooperation, involving the representatives of the Central Asian and selected South Asian economies, met again in Dushanbe on 23 April 2008 to discuss the promotion of regional electricity trade and to share knowledge on sector reform and on the creation of national and regional electricity markets. The meeting was jointly organised by the Energy Charter Secretariat and the Ministry of Energy and Industry of Tajikistan. It followed a Special Workshop on Regional Cooperation in Water Management in Central Asia, organised by the OSCE and the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Management of Tajikistan on the preceding day.

16 April 2008 marked ten years since the Energy Charter Treaty came into full legal force. The Energy Charter Secretariat held a reception at Palais d'Egmont in Brussels to celebrate this anniversary, marking the Treaty's achievements over these years and it's readiness to embrace new challenges posed by international energy markets.

"While this ten-year period is not very long for an international treaty, the Energy Charter Treaty has proven to be a successful and well-functioning legal instrument thus far, and it has everything to continue serving the best interests of its members in the years to come," stated the Secretary General of the Energy Charter André Mernier at a ceremony held in Brussels to mark this very important milestone.

(2008) This publication focuses on public sector energy efficiency at all levels of government for PEEREA member countries.

(2008) The Energy Charter has completed an in-depth review of energy efficiency in Latvia.

(2008) For the moment, only the Russian version of this report is available.

(2008) This report looks at various Caspian oil production scenarios  in the context of export capacity which should become available in the Caspian and Black Sea regions.