The debate was held a day before an energy summit in Zagreb at which the leaders of a dozen Southeast European countries and Russia will discuss supply and transport of energy sources.
Energy sector leaders from the region's countries comprising the Energy Community (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, Bulgaria) adopted a declaration that will be presented at Sunday's summit in which they supported regional governments in further securing business operations so as to make energy and its transport available under free market conditions.
Energy companies are willing to support new infrastructure projects, cooperate and meet directly in the realisation of common interests, said the declaration.
The head of Croatia's Hrvoje Pozar Institute, Goran Granic, said the Energy Community countries were insufficiently connected in infrastructure terms and that political problems slowed down the adjustment of energy legislation.
He said the Energy Community could not help each country settle its own problems or invest in the energy infrastructure, and that the countries should work on connecting transport systems, developing a regional energy stock exchange and adjusting legislation.
Croatia's Assistant Economy Minister Zeljko Tomsic said the Croatian government would invest EUR 440 million in the country's gas supply network by 2010.
Other plans include an Adriatic gas ring that would connect Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Italy with pipelines, and the construction of a liquefied gas terminal in the northern Adriatic that would reduce Europe's dependency on Russia's oil.
Tomsic said Hungary and Slovakia were interested in transporting oil via the JANAF pipeline from the terminal in Omisalj, Croatia, and that Croatia and Hungary planned to sign an agreement on the construction of a power transmission line from Osijek to Pecs.