On 29 October 2009, the Energy Club is organizing its first session as a Conference on Energy Security in Crown Plaza, Minsk. This event is part of a larger programme: meetings of the club are scheduled to take place quarterly, carried out as a one day meeting and gathering local independent and government experts on energy, as well as foreign specialists in the given field. The initiative received financial support from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).
The Energy Club is the project of the Office for Democratic Belarus, the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Foundation for Legal Technologies Development that grew out of the successful seminar ‘EU Energy Policy: Sharing Experience’ organized by these groups under the patronage of the European Commission Delegation in Minsk on 6-7 June 2009. That seminar confirmed both the need for and the opportunity to pursue a constructive and focused, fair and open exchange of opinions on the key issues of economic and social development of Belarus and on how the Belarus’ rapprochement with the European Union can serve its development goals.
