The ministers from the International Energy Agency (IEA) member countries gathered for the 2013 IEA Ministerial Meeting Wednesday welcomed Estonia as the 29th member of the IEA.
Acting upon the recommendation of IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven, the ministers were satisfied that the country met all IEA membership requirements, including the obligation to hold enough emergency oil stocks to cover 90 days of net imports, under the IEA Treaty.
Accordingly, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources 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 Juhan Parts of Estonia welcomed the invitation and assured his colleagues that Estonia would speedily complete its internal accession procedures to 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.
The Ministerial meeting will conclude this afternoon with a press conference by Minister Taner Yildiz and IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven.