"Northern Dimension in a BASREC Perspective"

Conference on Energy financing, Investments, Bioenergy, Energy efficiency and RDD&I

Baltic Sea Region Energy Co-operation BASREC will organise an energy conference in St. Petersburg on March 16 - 18 2004 in co-operation with Russian partners. The BASREC countries are the 11 member countries of the Council of Baltic Sea States CBSS (www.cbss.st) and the European Commission.

The aims of the St. Petersburg conference are:

To give an updated information concerning the financing possibilities and conditions of investments in energy efficiency, district heating, combined heat and electricity and in energy production by renewable fuels and energy sources especially in North-West Russia;
Within above mentioned projects and branches
- Discuss further co-operation possibilities and investment perspectives in Russia;
- Present modern technological processes and equipment;
- Discuss possibilities to intensify co-operation in research and technology development; and:
To present the BASREC work as a regional activity that complements the EU-Russia energy dialogue
To discuss EU's Wider Europe Northern Dimension policies and co-operation and the opportunities a wide- based regional co-operation gives to the Russian Federation and other countries in addition to the EU-Russia dialogue and other energy sector co-operation.

The conference results will be collected into a written report that will be published also through www.basrec.org in Russian and English.

The main Russian organisations to host the conference are the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and Gosenergonadsor Baltija. The conference is arranged in co-operation with and support from the Nordic Council of Ministers (www.norden.org), Finland (www.ktm.fi), Barents Euro Arctic Council BEAC and its Energy Working Group EWG (www.barentsenergy.org).

Final programme and registration information will be available on February 6.

In connection to the conference there will be an energy technology exhibition and a forum for companies, www.planora.fi.

BASREC conference secretariat: Mr Dins Merirands, Energy Unit, CBSS secretariat; Stromsborg, P.O. Box 2010, SE-103 11 Stockholm, Sweden; www.cbss.st and www.basrec.org
Phone: +46 8 440 930, Fax: +46 8 440 1944: e-mail: dins.merirands@cbss.st