IEA ministers open door for Estonia to join

The ministers from the IEA member countries who are gathered for the IEA Ministerial meeting opened the door on Wednesday for Estonia to become the 29th member of the Agency.

Acting upon the recommendation of IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven, the ministers were satisfied that the country met all IEA membership requirement, including the obligation to hold enough emergency oil stocks to cover 90 days of net imports, under the IEA Treaty.

Accordingly, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, the IEA Ministerial Chair, invited Estonia to proceed speedily with the country’s internal accession procedure and report back to the IEA council once all measures are completed. 

Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts of Estonia welcomed the invitation and assured his colleagues that Estonia would speedily complete its internal accession procedures under the IEA Treaty.

"Estonia places immense strategic importance on becoming part of the global energy community, and accession to the IEA is an important milestone in our mission to take an active role in the designing of global energy policy," Minister Parts said.

"Estonia shares common values with the IEA – strong economic development and increasing prosperity, efficiently functioning energy markets, continued research and development for environmentally sound energy technologies, improved energy efficiency, emphasis on environmental measures are on the list of values we stress in setting or implementing our energy policies," he added.

From left to right:  IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven, Minister Juhan Parts of Estonia, and Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz: © IEA/OECD, 2013, by Benjamin Renout

About the IEA

The International Energy Agency is an autonomous organisation which works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 28 member countries and beyond. Founded in response to the 1973/4 oil crisis, the IEA’s initial role was to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through the release of emergency oil stocks to the markets. While this continues to be a key aspect of its work, the IEA has evolved and expanded. It is at the heart of global dialogue on energy, providing authoritative research, statistics, analysis and recommendations..