European Energy Sector: Ensuring Decarbonisation and Strategic Independence

November 8, 2022, Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU, rue du Trône 130, Brussels

The Goal of the conference is to discuss the current developments of European energy policy under the Czech Presidency and to contribute to the debate on the development of the battery industry and the potential for lithium mining in the EU.

Conference will discuss the following topics, in particular:

Role of indigenous raw material resources, namely lithium in achieving European strategic independence and decarbonisation goals
Support of projects of European battery supply chain
Recent developments of EU energy policy under the Czech Presidency and next steps
European energy system of the future and ensuring sufficient investments

The conference will be held in English without interpretation and will be followed by a walking lunch.

Organizers

Conference will be organized by the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU together with the Czech Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and CEZ Group, under the auspices of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. ÚJV ŘEŽ, a. s. as a conference partner.

Draft program

Time	Block	Speaker
9:00 – 9:25	Arrival of participants, registration
9:25 – 9:30	Welcome	Jaroslav Zajíček, Deputy Head of the Czech Permanent Representation to the EU Permanent Representative to COREPER I Ambassador
9:30 – 10:00	Keynote address, followed by Q&A	Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission
10:00 – 11:15	EU Lithium and Batteries Potential	Pavel Cyrani, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors CEZ Group
		Peter Handley, Head of Unit – Energy Intensive Industries – Raw Materials, DG Grow
		Giorgio Corbetta, Policy Director, Eurobat
		William Todts, Director General, Transport and Environment
		Luděk Niedermayer, Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Czech Republic
		Moderator: Daniel Měsíc, Deputy Head of Brussels Office, CEZ Group
11:15 – 11:45	Coffee Break
11:45 – 12:15	Keynote address, followed by Q&A	Jozef Síkela, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic
12:15 – 13:30	EU Energy Policy under the Czech Presidency	Mechthild Wörsdörfer, Deputy Director General, DG Energy
		Cilian O’Donoghue, Policy Director, Eurelectric
		Pavel Cyrani, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors CEZ Group
		Jerzy Buzek, Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Poland
		Moderator: Tomáš Pirkl, Head of Brussels Office, CEZ Group