Black Sea Regional Energy Centre

Sofia, Bulgaria

The Black Sea Regional Energy Centre (BSREC) was inaugurated in 1995 following the Chalkidiki Ministerial Meeting, held in 1994 in Greece.

The establishment of the Centre was a joint initiative of the European Commission, under its SYN-ERGY Programme, and the countries of the Black Sea region, i.e. Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Since 1999, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and since 2001 Serbia have become members of the BSREC as well.

BSREC was registered in Sofia, Bulgaria, according to the legislation of its host country. 

The Black Sea Regional Energy Centre acts as a focal point for energy related activities aimed at developing the cooperation between the Black Sea region countries and the EU in the energy field. Apart from its international activities, the BSREC is actively involved in the Bulgarian energy issues, acting as a Bulgarian energy society. 

BSREC has been actively working on the harmonisation of the energy legislation of the Black Sea countries with the EU one, targeting to improve the investment climate and to encourage foreign investments in the energy sector.

The Centre, together with EU and local consultants, has performed projects directed to implementation of requirements and conditions of the main EU political and legislative documents.

BSREC took an active part in several projects with regional coverage through providing consultancy and support services. The Centre has enhanced its capabilities in the Balkans, co-ordinating and/or being involved in projects that helped ensuring the efficiency of electricity, gas and oil interconnection investment initiatives in this region (Balkans Energy Interconnection Task Force, Energy Interconnections in South-Eastern Europe) in view to creation of a Regional Electricity Market (REM).