Meeting No 3072 of the European Union’s Energy Council was held on 28 February 2011 in Brussels. The meeting was chaired by Minister of National Development Dr Tamás Fellegi.

The participants of the Council meeting discussed the draft regulation on the integration and transparency of energy markets, approved Council Conclusions on the issues discussed at the 4 February 2011 meeting of the European Council, and then in agreement with the affected Council formations, sized up progress made in respect of the priority energy objectives. Within the framework of additional agenda items, they listened to the Commission’s Communication on “Renewable Energy: Progressing towards the 2020 target and a report by Commissioner Günther Oettinger on the most recent developments regarding the Southern Gas Corridor and the potential direction of progress. Simultaneously with the Energy Council meeting, a decision was adopted on endorsing sanctions against Libya - Tamás Fellegi announced on behalf of the Hungarian Presidency at the afternoon press conference.

Following the Council meeting, the energy ministers and the representatives of the European Commission had a working lunch. During lunch the participants were informed of the Commission’s position regarding the single internal energy market, exchanged their views on the post of the International Energy Agency’s executive director, to expire in September 2011, touched the issues related to the secretary general’s post of the Energy Charta, and overviewed the effects of the North-African political situation on the security of energy supply to the European Union.

In connection with the North-African situation, the ministers agreed with the International Energy Agency’s opinion that the production capacities available for the main oil producing countries, the existing reserves and the efficiently operating forecasting system can offset the drop in oil production. However, with a view to the fact that the current situation does not leave the individual Member States’ energy supply unaffected, the ministers agreed that developments need to be monitored, and if required, concerted action must be taken along with using the opportunities available in solidarity mechanisms.

During the afternoon press conference, Tamás Fellegi announced that the European Union imposed, among others, an arms embargo on Libya, and in addition the actions included in the U.N. Security Council’s Saturday resolution, banned the transport of assets that can be used for violent actions against citizens. The Member States have adopted a travel ban to several high officials of the Libyan regime, including Colonel Gaddafi and five members of his family. In addition to the above described actions, the bank accounts held at European banks and the assets of a number of Libyan persons were frozen.

Following the meeting of the Energy Council, National Development Minister Tamás Fellegi met Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard and discussed the time schedule of the low-carbon roadmap to be presented by the European Commission in early March.

During the day bilateral Hungarian and Slovenian talks were held between Hungarian Deputy State Secretary for Energy Pál Kovács and Slovenian Director General for Energy Janez Kopac regarding co-operation opportunities between the two countries in the field of energy.

(Ministry of National Development , Department of Communication)