The Polish-German Energy Forum was initiated by the CIR, and implemented in cooperation with the German partner – Pflüger Internationale Beratung GmbH. Professor Friedbert Pflüger, former Secretary of State in the first government of Chancellor Merkel, Member of the Bundestag 1990-2006 and lecturer at King’s College in London is a specialist in the energy field and the climate policy. The forum was a business initiative gathering important policy figures and experts. The aim was to create a platform for discussions on how to face the future challenges, such as ensuring energy security, European climate policy, and the need to develop energy infrastructure, in both countries.
The energy policy of Poland and Germany may become a field of confrontation as well as platform for cooperation. It is only a matter of political will and imagination. If the parties show pragmatism and give up the confrontation rhetoric, they can be important partners for each other, both in terms of bilateral relations and in the European Union context. If both sides are guided by pragmatism, there is no reason why divergences in matters such as nuclear energy or shale gas, shall disrupt the constructive cooperation in other areas.
The first Polish-German Energy Forum was held in Berlin on January 17, 2014, with the special guests- Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and heads of leading companies from the broadly understood energy sector of both countries. Forum participants emphasized the great demand for such a platform for dialogue. The Forum presented “The Energy for Cooperation (Polish-German Cooperation Potential Analysis in the Energy Sector” developed by Ambassador Janusz Reiter and Professor Friedbert Pflüger in cooperation with Tobiasz Adamczewski and Aras Duero. The aim of this document is to present areas of cooperation in the field of energy policy by providing a detailed analysis of this sector in both countries. Preparation of this publication and organization of the event was possible thanks to the Robert Bosch Foundation support.
On May 26, 2014, the conference ‘Capacity market – a solution for the future?’, organized by the CIR in cooperation with the Warsaw office of Konrad Adenauer, was an invitation to debate about the demand of this mechanism in Poland and about the status of the discussions concerning this topic in other countries.
Representatives of Germany and France shared their knowledge on their work progress Both, France and Germany, are in favor of a decentralized market model where the stock market and new financial instruments are used. On the other hand, representatives of the Polish side tended to favor the centralized model, where the network system operator plays the main role.
The great restraint of the European Commission towards the introduction of power markets, was mentioned. The EC sees in this solution a form of state aid.
The recurring question – as the title of the conference – was how much power markets are needed, and to what extent other energy policy instruments can be used before reaching for this solution. There was agreement among the speakers that capacity mechanisms should take into account generating units and demand side resources (DSR).
