FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – INCLUSIVE ENERGY TRANSITION IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE – What would be promising approaches and platforms for target groups to further benefit from an inclusive energy transition? The answers were analysed for each of the nine countries separately, identifying points of commonality as well as dif­ferences in opinion between stakeholders. The sector a re­spondent came from was also considered when interpreting the results. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS FROM EXPERT ­INTERVIEWS The six Western Balkan Energy Community Contracting Par­ties – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montene­gro, North Macedonia and Serbia – face several main obsta­cles: insufficient and at times inadequate legal frameworks, lack of human and technical capacities at the ministries and agencies in charge of the transition, heavy dependence on coal and lignite(except Albania), lack of energy efficiency measures, energy poverty which is not appropriately ad­dressed, dependence on a single energy supplier and slow progress on diversification of the supply chain and on wid­ening interconnectivity, lack of a skilled labour force, and the security of the energy market. When asked about inclusive energy transition, interviewees in some countries, especially in the Western Balkans, had difficulties in understanding the term and differentiating it from the just transition process. Overall, the stakeholders in the Western Balkans agree that the first step toward an in­clusive energy transition would be to receive more informa­tion on the process. One of the ways this could be achieved would be to include citizens in the policy-making process and to open the channel for citizens to gain knowledge about inclusive energy transition and what that process en­tails. Not only do citizens lack information, but many stakehold­ers from the Western Balkans concluded that decision mak­ers also lack awareness about the process. According to our interviewees, in some countries such as in Serbia, the gov­ernment has not shown interest in meeting climate targets. Stakeholders also recognised the potential for local commu­nities in the inclusive energy transition process and almost universally agreed that local communities should be more included and informed – this would contribute to a higher level of inclusiveness and decentralisation. Almost all the in­terviewees agree that renewable energy is underused in their countries and that their government should put more effort into using renewables as a permanent solution to cov­er their countries’ energy needs. Interviewees in some coun­tries feel that the core problem is that authorities still do not recognise renewable energy as a development priority. For some countries, such as Kosovo, the challenge of inclu­sive energy transition is greater than for others – interview­ees from Kosovo point out that almost 60 per cent of citi­zens cannot cover their utility costs, indicating that urgent measures promoting the renovation of family homes and energy efficiency in general are needed. As Kosovo is not a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), it has no legal basis for Nation­ally Determined Contributions. In this respect, the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans is seen as an opportunity for political commitment. Despite the fact that it faces similar challenges to other Western Balkan countries, North Macedonia has made some progress on coal phase-out and on citizens’ inclusion in policy-making processes. Interviewees from North Mace­donia emphasise that the country faces challenges such as poor alignment of the educational system with labour mar­ket needs, and the inability of both the labour market and education system to assimilate all the workers who would need retraining or reskilling in the inclusive energy transition process. Therefore, some interviewees conclude, the gov­ernment should invest more in the reform of the vocational and higher education system to train highly skilled workers who would be qualified to work with new technologies. These issues and conclusions are more similar to those for the southeast European EU Member States than to those of the other Western Balkan countries. All participants consider the Energy Community an impor­tant factor in the inclusive energy transition processes in the region, but most of them think that it would be more pro­ductive if a stricter sanction mechanism – i.e. financial pen­alties – is put in place. The main challenge faced by the three EU Member States, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, is very unambitious nation­al energy and climate plans. At the time of the interviews, all three Member States lacked clear coal phase-out dates, had relatively unambitious greenhouse gas targets, and did not provide clear action plans or cost estimates for meas­ures envisaged in their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). Conclusions for the three EU Member States differ from the conclusions for the Western Balkan countries in that more interviewees from the Member States recognise the term inclusive energy transition. Even though they still associate it with the just transition process in some cases, in more cases they readily state that inclusive energy transition means ensuring positive social impacts and creating chanc­es for vulnerable groups to have enough energy for a good quality life. These stakeholders are also more familiar with policy work being done at the national and local levels. Even though some of their issues are similar to those in Western Balkan countries, EU Member State stakeholders recognise different opportunities for their countries – for example, further investments in energy efficiency measures with a higher share of RES in the energy mix or more meas­ures to help the labour market transition from jobs in tradi­tional industries towards green jobs. Interviewees empha­sise that labour markets lack a qualified workforce and point out the lack of systematic education for green occu­pations as the main problem. They view the reskilling of the 62