Council pre-approves voting position covering 25 breach-of-treaty decisions and new OLAF oversight powers for the Energy Community Secretariat
7 January, 2026 – This Council Decision, drafted by the Council of the European Union, established the position that the EU’s representatives are authorized to take at the 23rd Ministerial Council of the Energy Community, held on 18 December 2025 in Vienna. Rather than being a substantive act in its own right, the Decision pre-authorises the EU’s vote on a several acts that the Ministerial Council itself was to adopt, covering five categories of business:
- Infringement decisions against nine Contracting Parties.
- Approval of the Energy Community budget for 2026-2027.
- Discharge of the Secretariat Director for the 2024 financial year.
- Ammendments to the Energy Community’s budgetary and financial control procedures.
- Adoption of an updated Secretariat organisational chart.
Perhaps the most extensive element is the infringement package, where the EU position authorises approval of 25 individual infringement decisions under Article 91.1.a of the Energy Community Treaty, finding breaches of the Treaty by Albania (2 decisions), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4 decisions), Georgia (3 decisions), Kosovo (3 decisions), North Macedonia (3 decisions), Serbia (3 decisions) and Ukraine (1 decision). The approval of each decision is conditional on a prior supporting opinion from the Energy Community Advisory Committee.
The ammendments to the Community’s financial and control procedures also introduce a notable institutional change, as the budgetary procedures are ammended to formally integrate OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into the Energy Community’s anti-fraud and financial irregularity framework, creating explicit obligations for Secretariat staff and the authorizing officer to report suspected fraud to both bodies, and cooperate with their investigation.
Author’s notes
The Energy Community is the primary legal framework through which the EU extends its internal energy market rules to Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries as part of their alignment with EU standards. The volume of infringement proceedings reflects the persistent implementation gaps across the region, although the comparably low amount of proceedings against Albania and Ukraine compared to other States reads positively on their process towards European integration.
