Three Seas Initiative: Benefits for Regional Gas Markets and the EU

Background
On 25 August 2016, 12 countries — Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia — met in Dubrovnik, Croatia, to sign a joint declaration — the Three Seas initiative.

The Declaration set as goals the construction of needed infrastructure for the single European gas market, improved security, and increased competition to control pricing. It referred to EU tools and strategies that aimed to strengthen the region and eventually the whole EU. The need to develop infrastructure mainly on the north-south axis had intensified as a result of EU energy policy and Three Seas countries’ security perceptions and ambitions.

A second formal meeting of the TSI met in Warsaw on the 6 July 2017 at which US President Donald Trump participated.The author wrote that Central and Eastern European countries had distinct potential for investment in gas infrastructure to meet expected growth in demand. The Three Seas Initiative (TSI) would help coordinate policy among its participants and promote the interests of the region to strengthen energy security and develop a competitive gas market. Not only would Three Seas countries benefit from this but also the EU as a whole.