The youngest regional chronostratigraphic unit of the Central Paratethys, the Pannonian Stage, is benchmarked by the deposits of Lake Pannon, containing a highly endemic, Caspian-type biota, and the sediments of adjacent deltas and fluvial plains. The Pannonian Stage also includes various freshwater lake deposits and vast volcanic formations, especially in the northern and eastern margins of the Pannonian Basin system. The Pannonian correlates with the Tortonian, Messinian, Zanclean and Piacenzian Stages, thus representing 9 Myr between 11.6 and 2.6 Ma. The Pannonian is divided into biochronostratigraphic units by the application of mollusc and dinoflagellate biochronozones in the Lake Pannon deposits and mammal biozones in the freshwater sediments. The Pannonian Stage is a leading geoenergy provider in terms of hydrocarbons and lignite. Prolific oil and gas reservoirs occur in both the deep-water and deltaic sand bodies in the central part of the Pannonian Basin, which is a highly mature exploration area. The practically inexhaustible lignite resource of the Pannonian Stage has been mined or is still being mined in the basin margins in all ten countries of the Pannonian Basin system.