FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – INCLUSIVE ENERGY TRANSITION IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE As a country where nearly 70 per cent of the population is younger than 30, Kosovo should prioritise investments in the development of an education system that is aligned with the needs of the labour market. Kosovo should invest more in the reskilling of current younger workers and creat­ing pension schemes for older workers. All interviewees agree that university programmes should be restructured and modernised. The government has regulated by law that new technologies and systems are included in the curricu­lum, but there is a lack of lecturers in the relevant fields. One participant gives an example of a bachelor’s pro­gramme at the department of energy at the Polytechnic University of Tirana which tackled RES and energy efficien­cy that lasted only for two generations of students and died out due to the lack of lecturers. She gives an example of good practice, the Women in Energy initiative from the Mil­lennium Challenge Corporation Kosovo Threshold pro­gramme, which includes scholarships for women to study abroad and afterwards work in Kosovo for some period. This programme helps bring valuable knowledge and expe­rience in new technologies to Kosovo but also helps create a gender-inclusive energy transition. 6. MONTENEGRO scandal!’ Small hydropower plant projects that destroy na­ture despite the availability of high-quality and well-devel­oped technologies to ensure a sufficient residual flow in the river provoke the anger of the local population. The re­spondent says,‘We turned something good into something bad’. According to the majority of interviewees, there are known cases of nepotism and corruption at the highest levels of government, so citizens no longer see the benefits. This creates an unfavourable climate for the implementation of RES. Two stakeholders identified corruption as the biggest obstacle for the inclusive energy transition. The prices of projects and how investors obtain permits and concessions are also questionable. This problem would be partially solved by an auction approach. These two stakeholders state that it is because of these problems that citizens are unhappy. Investing in small hydropower plants was very profitable due to feed-in tariffs but they could only be built by those who had connections to the authorities. With a general atmosphere of corruption in the system, the pay­ment of the fee for RES visible in citizens’ electricity bills cre­ates even greater resistance towards investing in transition. The representative of the local authority states that now that the targets have been reached, financing should be left to the free market. Awareness of inclusive energy transition According to the interviews, most of the stakeholders from Montenegro have been regularly using the term‘inclusive energy transition’ for some time. One respondent states that the inclusive energy transition is a European process spilling over to southeast Europe and that it implies‘some discontinuity compared to traditional approaches that have been valid so far’. The participants state that the involve­ment of the state-owned electricity company Elektroprivre­da Crne Gore(EPCG), certain ministries, the Agency for Na­ture and Environmental Protection and several relevant di­rectorates is needed in this process. Citizen involvement is the best indicator that something is happening on this issue. An interviewee cites the example of 1,200 workers in the Pl­jevlja coal-fired power complex who are aware that the transition will affect them but do not know exactly how. Citizen participation in the policy-making process is neces­sary, according to most of the interviewees, and unfortu­nately, it is still carried out only formally. Formal barriers to and opportunities for inclusion According to the interviewees, the government of Monte­negro must take a clear stance and commit to working on inclusive energy transition. One interviewee from the gov­ernment sector states that the potential for RES utilisation is underused and the core problem is that the authorities still do not recognise it as a priority. Another interviewee states that Montenegro has extraordinary potential and adds that ‘the problem is not reaching the targeted quotas, but the way they are doing it. Every project is accompanied by a Stakeholders state that national legislation is largely in line with the EU acquis, but processes get stuck in implementa­tion. According to an economic development consultant from the public sector, the previous government planned the transition processes following the EU policies, but car­ried out procedures that contradict sustainable develop­ment. He hopes that the new government will keep its promise to stick to the constitutional principle of Montene­gro being an ecological state. A participant from an NGO al­so thinks that the biggest problem is the authorities without vision who advocate for the right policies and procedures in public speeches but‘during the coffee break you hear that their attitudes are still 40 years behind’. He believes that people who implement strategies must take responsibility for them. However, at the time of the interview, interview­ees in general viewed the change in government as an op­portunity. Another interviewee points out that the previous law on en­ergy gives the possibility for any household or company to become a prosumer. In the new law, adopted in June 2020, these activities are better defined. All stakeholders interviewed believe that the Energy Com­munity has a significant role, and a participant from the gov­ernment sector states that although EPCG has the technical knowledge, it is‘valuable to see the experiences and chal­lenges that other countries have had, both bilaterally and multilaterally’. Most respondents think that the Energy Com­munity should introduce more serious penalty mechanisms and use the‘carrot and stick’ principle. The biggest flaw is that litigation for states in violation lasts too long, and their ultimate reach is soft diplomacy measures. 70