IKV Chairman Ömer Cihad Vardan, gave an opening speech on the 24th April 2014 at the 20th International Energy and Environment Fair and Conference (ICCI 2014). In his speech, IKV Chairman Vardan drew the attention to Turkey's growing importance of energy and assessed Turkey and EU’s energy policies. Ömer Cihad Vardan also stressed that the atmosphere of crises in Ukraine proves once more the importance of Turkey for the EU especially in the field of energy. In this regard, Vardan stressed to Turkey’s strategic position as the energy corridor and the security of energy supply.

By drawing the attention to Turkey’s increasing international activities in the field of energy, IKV Chairman specified that the new cooperation with Iraq on oil resources and the creation of new partnerships in the energy field indicates that Turkey is on the path to play a more active role in this field.

Vardan emphasized the importance of opening the “Energy” Chapter within the EU accession negotiations and pointed out that the fact that the chapter in question was unilaterally blocked by Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus was preventing the cooperation to be more effective.

Vardan also pointed out that Turkey presented significant opportunities for EU investors for all kind of investment in the energy field. He thus expressed that the investment opportunities should be assessed with great caution.