From 25 to 27 September energy security and climate change experts from around the world gathered in the Baltic Beach Hotel Jurmala for a conference on “Energy Security in the European Union: The Eastern and Baltic Dimension”.

 

The conference, jointly organised by the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UK’s Wilton Park * discussed two major long-term challenges in the field of energy policy today: how to deliver secure,clean energy at affordable prices; and how to combat climate change.

 

The objective of the conference was to promote a debate on these questions and exchange of opinions on regional-specific aspects between senior experts from around the world: from across the EU, Russia to China and beyond.

 

Ms Ilga Preimate, the Deputy Secretary of State at the Economy Ministry of Latvia and Mr Tim Abraham, Director of European Energy Policy at the UK Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, launched the debate with presentations of Latvian and UK views on European energy security. The European Commission perspective was presented by Mr Andris Kesteris, Head of Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Energy.

 

A significant proportion of the conference focused on Russia  in the context of EU-Russia energy relationship, stfarting from a presentation from Dr. Konstantin Simonov, the Director of National Energy Fund of Moscow on the "Role of Energy in Russian Foreign Policy" , to views on the impact of China and India on energy demand from Russia by ProfessorYang Guang, Beijing.

 

The conference was organised as a regional workshop and brought together more than 70 experts from across the globe, also reflecting the leading role of partnership sin the EU towards establishing stable climate and energy supplies globally.

 

* Wilton Park is a prestigious conference centre in the UK. It is an academically independent and non-profit making executive agency of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). It organises around 50 conferences a year, five outside the UK, for a global audience ofexperts and is famous for its quality.