Secretary General Urban Rusnák attended the VII International Conference "Energy Dialogue: Russia-European Union - Gas Aspects", which took place in Brussels on 27 April 2012. This event was organised by Eurogas and the Russian Gas Society and was aimed at policy makers, public officials and community leaders, members of parliaments, international organisations, academia and energy companies from Russia and the EU. The Secretary General spoke on the topic "The Contribution of the Energy Charter to Energy Security on the Eurasian Continent".

Please click here for the text of the Secretary General's speech.

Secretary General Urban Rusnák was in Istanbul for the World Energy Leaders Summit on 19-20 April 2012. This is an event organised twice a year by the World Energy Council (WEC) for its global Energy Leaders community to enable ongoing high-level dialogue on critical issues affecting the energy world. The focus was on balancing energy security, social equity and environmental impact mitigation; the transition of natural gas markets and implications on geopolitics; financing issues for a low-carbon infrastructure as well as energy storage as a key to unlocking Turkey's potential as a renewable energy hub. The Summit was co-hosted by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and WEC's Turkish National Member Committee.

The annual Flame conference, held this year on 16-20 April, brought together over 750 participants from the gas industry from all over the world, regulators, governments, international organisations, associations and academia. Secretary General Urban Rusnák spoke in the session on Achieving European Security of Supply. When evaluating the prospects of tightening supply and demand in Europe, Amb. Rusnák considered geopolitical, economic, technological and regulatory factors affecting the situation. He also pointed out that global energy trends indicated that most answers to European supply and demand questions lay outside Europe.

Secretary General Urban Rusnák was the opening speaker at the International Congress on Energy Security, which took place on 4-5 April 2012 in Geneva. This event was organised by Greenorbis International with the collaboration of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) and with the Energy Charter Secretariat as an institutional event partner.

On 28 March 2012 the ECS Directorate of Trade and Transit organised an electricity stakeholder event on transit and cross-border cooperation. This set of consultations was the first of three such meetings planned for 2012. Subsequent stakeholder events will focus on gas and oil. These consultations are held in the context of a possible re-set of negotiations on a new Energy Charter instrument on energy transit (click here for more information).