Slovenia, Hungary, and Serbia Sign Energy Cooperation Agreement
Slovenia, Hungary, and Serbia have signed a partnership agreement aimed at enhancing cooperation in the energy sector. The joint project, named BlueSky, is expected to lay the groundwork for regional electricity trading, improve market integration, enhance energy security, and stimulate economic progress for the signing countries, as reported by The Slovenian Times.
The agreement comes after Slovenia's national electricity grid operator, Eles, and Serbia's Elektromreža Srbije established the regional electricity exchange Adex in December of last year in collaboration with Epexspot, a Paris-based electricity market organizer operating in 13 countries.
Joining the first regional electricity exchange for Central and Southeastern Europe is the Hungarian energy exchange HUPX, founded in 2010 by the Hungarian grid operator MAVIR.
Representatives from Slovenia's Ministry of the Environment, Climate, and Energy stated during the agreement signing that BlueSky is the result of negotiations and close collaboration between representatives of the three national energy exchanges.
The ministry also believes that consolidating local markets will provide access to a unified trading and clearing system in Slovenia, Serbia, and Hungary, thereby contributing to the strengthening of the single European market.
Earlier in March, The Gaze reported that Hungary had lost nearly 1.5 billion euros due to Prime Minister Orbán's government purchasing gas from Russia instead of the stock market.
Hungary's financial losses from buying gas from Russia amounted to 564 billion forints (1.43 billion euros) in just the past year. This is because the current Hungarian-Russian gas procurement contract was signed in 2021 at the beginning of the European energy price crisis. The media calculated these losses based on data from December 2023, recently released by Hungary's Central Statistical Office.
In October 2021, the Hungarian government signed a gas procurement contract with Russia, officially involving two state companies: Russian Gazprom and Hungarian MVM. However, the terms were negotiated at the highest political level.