Mission and Vision

Why is our task important?

To date, limited platform for cooperation. There are many discussions about energy issues in Central Eastern Europe, but these are mostly one-off events. Such regular events as there are tend to be large talking shops bringing together competing interests from inside and outside of the region. While such fora are important, they do not provide a basis for building trust among regional leaders, especially between business and government. Consequently, the two sides do not understand and trust each other. This is reflected in the many failed opportunities and bad decisions in the energy sector of the region.

To date, lack of a comprehensive perspective. Because of the complexity of energy issues, papers and analyses on the topic tend to focus on one or two particular aspects. Only a few substantial and comprehensive pieces of research have been conducted, and their reach has been rather limited.

To date, no professional one-stop shop to focus the media on the real issues. While the regional media has covered energy matters extensively recently, this coverage suffers from a lack of expertise and can be inadvertently misleading. The real issues rarely receive the regular media attention they should. This can be remedied by providing the media a professional one-stop shop for expert analysis.

Why now?

The issues have not changed. The issues at the table today are similar or almost the same as they were a few years ago.

Yet, the region has been unable to tackle them properly. Recent developments - the death of Nabucco and construction of North and South Stream - show that the region's past approaches have failed.

A new way forward must be found. Although some leaders in business and politics have arrived at similar conclusions, they have not been able to establish a mechanism for sustained and coordinated policy action. Events in Georgia only underline the need to think about strategy for Central Eastern Europe in advance.

Why our team?

An international team with the right experience set. CEI's seasoned core team includes former executives from the energy industry and renowned international experts on the business and politics of energy from Europe and the United States.

High level of credibility both in and outside the region. Each member has an extensive network of regional and international leaders and has carved out an international credibility of his and her own in energy matters.

Bringing the users of energy to the table. Energy security is often most important to those firms that use large amounts of energy, but these key users are often not involved in energy security conversations and rarely realize the importance of energy security to them. CEI will seek to bring major energy users into energy security discussions in Central Europe partly through its International Advisory Board.

How to get there?

Elevating the right ideas to discussion. CEI will prepare and disseminate analyses of key issues and initiate discussions among experts, leaders and the media.

Facilitating trust building. CEI will organize regular events to discuss the key energy-related issues of the region and to help build trust among the key stakeholders.

Facilitating cooperation. CEI will maintain regular contacts with businessmen, politicians and civil society across the Central Eastern European countries and try to serve as a facilitator for cooperation.