EUROPEX (Association of European Energy Exchanges) General Assembly Meeting was held in Antalya on June 9-10, hosted by EXIST, with the participation of the board of directors and general assembly members.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mr. Fatih Dönmez, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Alparslan Bayraktar, EUROPEX Chairman of the Board Mr. Pieter Schuurs, EUROPEX Secretary General Mr. Christian Baer, EUROPEX members of the board and the general assembly, as well as former executives attended the 20th anniversary dinner of EUROPEX organized as part of the event.

Addressing the participants at the 20th anniversary dinner, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mr. Fatih Dönmez expressed the satisfaction he felt for hosting of the EUROPEX General Assembly Meeting. Stating that the energy bottleneck emerged upon the pandemic process revealed once more the invaluable significance of the stakeholders in the name of maintaining the free market dynamics, Minister Dönmez reminded the audience of the importance of getting together at meetings of this sort. “I congratulate EUROPEX and wish them many 20 years more,” Dönmez said.

Fatih Dönmez: “We feel satisfied for seeing EXIST work in harmony with the European Energy Exchanges”

Having stated that with EXIST they have created an energy market featuring a higher number of participants, Dönmez added: “We have paved the way for the purchase and sale of electricity and natural gas under free market conditions in a transparent, stable, and competitive atmosphere. And we feel great satisfaction for seeing EXIST working in harmony with the European energy exchanges in this context.”

“The success story of EXIST is a source of proud for us”

Having highlighted that EXIST will keep on developing with their own means the energy markets in line with the needs of the industry, Minister Dönmez said: “The success story of EXIST, of whom I held the office of the Chairman of the Board of Directors before, does always proud us. We feel happy to see our successors raise the bar from the point we left it at. I extend my thanks to the EXIST management and employees for their diligence. EXIST has caught a good rhythm which I believe will go on accelerating in the years to come.”

“Türkiye is a country with a growth story rather than with potential”

Mentioning the growth of Türkiye and EXIST in the field of energy, Minister Dönmez stated the following: “You will see in the upcoming years the market size of EXIST and the reflections thereof on its products. Türkiye is a country with a growth story rather than one with potential. A country with potential means that it is at the bottom of the ladder. We are a country who has converted our high potential into a story of growth, and is continuously adding new pages to the same. Global economic concerns may affect everyone, however the demographic, market and growth dynamics will stay with us in the future years as well. And these will go on being our paramount strengths.”

EUROPEX Chairman of the Board Pieter Schuurs stated his happiness to be in Antalya, and thanked CEO of EXIST and EUROPEX Member of the Board Ahmet Türkoğlu for his hosting. Schuurs expressed in his address that EXIST was playing an important role in the liberalisation of the energy markets in Türkiye. A flashback to the European energy markets would reveal that things were different 20 years ago, and EUROPEX has helped the markets become flexible and transparent by gathering the energy exchanges in a more institutional structure.

EUROPEX Secretary General Mr. Christian Baer said: “I feel so happy to be all together at the 20th Anniversary of EUROPEX. I am further honoured to serve as the secretary general of EUROPEX.”

Following the dinner, the event of EUROPEX continued with the General Assembly Meeting held the next day. Addressing EUROPEX members on the same evening, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Alparslan Bayraktar emphasised the decarbonization of our economy and energy system.

“We have liberalised the market with the reforms we made”

Bayraktar, who talked about the important breakthroughs Türkiye has made in energy during the last 20 years; “This energy transformation started 20 years ago. As you know, we have liberalised the market by making reforms. In this way, we have attracted a great deal of investors to our country. Thus, we increased our installed power from 30 GW to 100 GW. Bayraktar, who talked about the transformation stages of our country in energy, also emphasised the importance of the National Energy and Mining Policy announced in 2017. Bayraktar said: “We specifically addressed two issues in the policy development process. The first is the increasing energy demand; the second is to reduce the foreign dependency.”

“We aim at becoming a carbon neutral country in 30 years”

On the other hand, after signing the Paris Agreement, a compelling goal came from our President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In line with the same, Türkiye aims to be carbon neutral in 30 years. We have 4 focus points for the carbon neutral economy. These; the use of renewable energy sources where we have a high capacity, the achievement of energy efficiency, the commissioning of nuclear energy and the reduction of foreign dependency in natural gas. With the latest discovery we made in this respect, we have marked one of the biggest discoveries in the world and we are now at the stage of making this resource available to our country.

“Smart energy transformation is a must for the sustainable energy transformation”

Stating that there should be a smart energy transformation for a sustainable energy transformation, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mr. Bayraktar said: “I think it would be better to talk about smart energy transformation instead of just talking about energy transformation. I mean with the concept of smart energy a sensitive, rational and digital energy transformation. We have to develop smart energy policies before 2053 in order to keep global warming at one and a half degrees.”

To close the event, all members expressed their satisfaction to be in Antalya and thanked EXIST for hosting it.