On April 3-5, 2006, will take place in Bucharest the “Black Sea Energy Conference”, under the auspices of the Romanian Chairmanship-in-Office of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.

The main objective of the Conference is to assess the current status of energy industry in the Black Sea region and to draw up a set of recommendations for the development of cooperation in this field.

The Conference will provide a framework for identifying legislative barriers and ways of harmonizing the legislation with relevant regulations of the European Union, including the establishment of working committees/groups for the purpose of this harmonization and monitoring the progress achieved.

It will also offer the opportunity for expressing the interest of participating countries to promote bilateral and multilateral investment projects, sharing best practices and identifying topics of interest for the future specialized seminars/meetings.

Within the Conference a number of workshops dedicated to energy regulatory systems, transmission and affordability issues will be organized and funded by USAID Romania Mission.

Targeted participants in the Conference will be a number of invited governmental bodies, representatives from regulatory agencies, key energy companies from each country (energy transmission operators, market operators, energy traders, utility monopolies), energy equipment suppliers, groups of energy consumers, donors, investors, professional associations and media.

For further information, please contact Mr. Mihai IVASCU, (004) (021) 319 01 51; Fax: (004) (021) 319 01 59, E-mail: mihai.ivascu@ccir.ro.