This year, 2021, marks Hungary and Poland’s 25th anniversary of accession to the OECD. On this occasion, and to address a timely topic that is relevant for all our countries, our Delegation, in cooperation with the Permanent Representation of Poland to the OECD has organized a webinar on Electric and Hydrogen-based mobility in the Visegrád (V4) countries.
Following Ambassador László Turóczy’s opening remarks, the webinar began with a keynote speech by László Varró, head of Royal Dutch Shell’s Scenarios Team, former Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA). In his presentation, he underlined that the year 2020 was an important turning point for electric mobility in Europe because this year was the first one when the size of the European EV market outstripped the size of the EV market in China. It was made possible thanks to the various types of subsidies provided by the governments, which remain indispensable for the foreseeable future, even though at some point need to be phased out. To achieve wider adoption of electric mobility, a dense network of chargers in the cities and along the main roads is required, along with the interoperability of the charging infrastructure in various countries. We need to make roaming possible, just like in the case of the mobile phone networks. He also emphasized the need for investment in the EV value chain, which is crucial for the Visegrád region where a high proportion of GDP is generated by the automotive industry.
During the presentations by the V4 countries, Martina Trkanová from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic introduced their policies on alternative fuels. Ewa Mazur from the Ministry of Climate and Environment of Poland presented us the Polish Hydrogen Strategy, followed by an overview of the Polish electric mobility market by Maciej Mazur, CEO of the Polish Association of Alternative Fuels, and Vice-President The European Association for Electromobility (AVERE). After an introduction to the Hydrogen Strategy of Slovakia by Martin Jesný from the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization, Márk Alföldy-Boruss and Viktor Horváth of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary provided an insight into the achievements of the Hungarian EV policies and the newly approved Hydrogen Strategy. The event that attracted a large audience from various countries and backgrounds ended with the closing remarks of Ambassador Aleksander Surdej, Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the OECD.
15/07/2021
