Iran, EU Joint Statement on Energy
Iranian and EU energy officials on Saturday issued a joint statement on energy cooperation.
The EU was represented by the Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete while Iran was represented by the Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, and the Minister of Energy, Hamid Chitchian.
The officials expressed their intention to launch a high level energy dialogue on non-nuclear energy.
“The dialogue should build on the technical assessment meetings of EU experts with their Iranian counterparts held on February 16 and 17, 2016 in Tehran, which identified priority areas for cooperation in non-nuclear energy, namely oil and gas, electricity, renewable energy and energy efficiency,” the EU said in a statement.
In the oil and natural gas sector the key themes of the dialogue should be:
- Exchange of information on policies, strategies and supply/demand forecasts;
- Conditions for investment in the Iranian energy sector, including legal and regulatory framework;
- Development prospects of oil and gas export infrastructure in the Islamic Republic of Iran to contribute to the EU's energy security;
- Cooperation in multilateral settings, with regard to the Islamic Republic of Iran and Europe's contribution to energy security globally and in the region;
- Joint cooperation on Iran's oil and gas industry, upstream, midstream and downstream activities with the view of increasing efficiency.
In the fields of electricity, renewable energy and energy efficiency key themes should be:
- Exchange of information on relevant policies and strategies, including on infrastructure development;
- Dialogue on a transparent and stable legal, regulatory framework, and appropriate institutional capacity, conducive for attracting investments in power generation, transmission, and distribution;
- Joint cooperation activities in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency;
- Dialogue on data collection and standards in energy efficiency;
- Opportunities under the Covenant of Mayors co-operation programmes;
- Follow-up to the COP21 Paris Agreement.
The two sides have also expressed their intention to establish an Energy Business Forum that would bring together public institutions, regulators, manufacturers, operators and financial experts to analyse the prospects and facilitate investment in the hydrocarbons sector, as well as in the renewable and energy efficiency sectors and to create a favourable environment for companies wishing to invest in the energy sector of Iran and the EU.