Bosnia and Herzegovina is the largest exporter of electricity in Europe. If it does not implement the obligations it has undertaken, from January 1, 2026, it will pay large taxes on the export of electricity.
This was said today by the director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community (EC), Arthur Lorkowski, after the meeting of the Informal Ministerial Council of the Energy Community, which was held in Banja Luka.
The informal ministerial council of the Energy Community is made up of energy ministers of all member countries, and its members are the European Union and nine signatory countries, potential EU members. Among them is Bosnia and Herzegovina, which this year chairs the EC’s Informal Ministerial Council.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s goal is to ensure safe continuity of electricity exports. This means that the legislation should include a set of measures that mean the merger of the electricity market,” said Lorkowski.
In a practical sense, as he said, this means that all electricity producers and traders can operate equally on the European Union market, and thus attract significant investors.
According to him, the plan was to merge the markets with the European Union market by the end of 2025, but “now it is clear that achieving the goal will be challenging.”
He cited the delay in the implementation of European legislation as the reason.
The Minister of Energy of the RS, Petar Đokić, said that the authorities in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if they do not want large levies on the export of electricity, should introduce taxes on all producers of electricity that emit CO2, i.e. carbon dioxide. This would mean, as he said, an increase in the price of electricity for the population and the economy.
Đokić only said that it was discussed at today’s session, but he did not talk about whether it would be implemented.
The session of the Informal Ministerial Council of the Energy Community was chaired by the Minister of Foreign Trade in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Staša Košarac.
“Some information appeared today about how a law will be passed at the BiH level on electric BiH. I firmly claim that such a thing will not happen if the entity ministries of energy do not agree,”said Košarac.
In addition to Košarc, the session was chaired by Mechthild Wosdofer, Deputy Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Energy. The session was also attended by the Minister of Energy of the Federation of BiH, Vedran Lakić, but he did not address the public.
