New Members of the European Energy and Transport Forum

Publication date: 05 October 2004

Miroslav Firt, International Affairs Executive of Czech Automobile Club ÚAMK, has been appointed today by the European Commission to become a Member of the European Energy and Transport Forum.

The European Energy and Transport Forum is a consultative body set up by the Commission two years ago.  Its role is:
- to present opinions on Commission initiatives in the fields of energy and transport;
- to act as a monitoring centre for energy and transport policies;
- to assist the Commission in following up the debates and actions launched in the Green Paper on the security of the EU’s energy supply and the White Paper on European transport policy for 2010.

The Forum has 34 full members and 34 alternates. The members are leading figures representing a broad range of activities and skills and include operators (energy producers, carriers, industrialists), infrastructure and network managers, users and consumers, trade unions, environmental protection associations, organisations in the field of security and safety and academics. The members’ mandate ran out at the end of June 2004. Following a call for applications published last April, the Commission selected the new members of the Forum for a two-year term starting on 1 October 2004. An inaugural meeting will be held in Brussels on 12 October.

The Forum has already provided the Commission, either at the latter’s request or on its own initiative, with advice on key policy areas such as the development of the Trans-European transport network, the Green Paper on services of general interest, the review of the guidelines for the trans-European transport network, the reinforcement of the role of the electricity transmission system operators, safety of supply, road safety, and consumers’ rights.