PAM Conference ‘MEDITERRANEAN ENERGY HIGHWAYS: AN URGENT NEED’
Naples, Italy 17 November, 2011
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean has organized within the framework of the PAM Panel on External Trade and Investments in the Mediterranean (PAM 2nd Standing Committee for Economic, Social and Environmental issues), a high-profile conference on “Mediterranean Energy Highways: an urgent need”. The event, held in Naples under the auspices of the Association of Mediterranean Regulators for Electricity and Gas (MEDREG), a PAM observer organization, and sponsored by TERNA S.p.A. (the Italian owner and operator of the National Electricity Transmission Grid), is part of the PAM Panel’s calendar of activities with the aim to support the creation of a Mediterranean energy Community.
The event, presided by Pam Vice-President, Senator Francesco Amoruso (Italy) and the co-chair of the PAM Panel, Mrs. Teresa Ribeiro (Portugal), was coordinated by Eng. Alessandro Ortis, in charge of the Energy Sectoral Group within the PAM Panel.
PAM Vice President, Sen. Francesco Amoruso (Italy) in his address to the participants underlined the importance of economic recovery in the region stating that “it is fundamental for the social and political stability of all the states of the Mediterranean region on both the Northern and Southern shores”.
The Group dedicated to Energy within the PAM Panel is the first to meet and discuss strategic issues which are “fundamental not only for the economic development of the entire region, but also for the security of all the Mediterranean citizens”, PAM Secretary General, Dr. Sergio Piazzistated. He added that, within this context, PAM is ready to give its support to the High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for all, launched at the beginning of November, by the UN Secretary General, H.E. Ban Ki-moon, himself.
Eng. Alessandro Ortis, coordinator of the PAM Panel Energy Group and Honorary President of MEDREG, said that “there is an urgent need to promote clear, stable, coordinated, harmonized and efficient legislative and regulatory frameworks, in order to induce and protect the necessary infrastructure investments in the Mediterranean. All this for the benefit of the surrounding countries and their respective continents of belonging”.
In his concluding remarks, Eng. Ortis called for increased cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean which raises very important challenges that need to be addressed in a coordinated manner, through the setting up of a new financial instrument that might be led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and through a governance structure where all Mediterranean countries would give a substantial contribution, while other international financial institutions could play an implementing role in activating this new financial instrument.
PAM welcomes the newly born METSO, the Association of the Mediterranean Transport System Operators (TSOs), launched in connection with the Naples Conference; the new body will facilitate the dialogue between the TSOs and the Institutions in order to promote a coordinated and proactive development of the electricity grids and of the Mediterranean interconnections.
PAM also recognizes the strategic role played by MEDREG in the promotion of METSO and as a PAM key partner on energy related issues. PAM considers the cooperation between its Panel, MEDREG and METSO as a preferential channel for future collaboration between energy stakeholders in the region.
Participants were also addressed by, among others, key-speakers from Government Institutions and Regional/International Organisations and Operators from Algeria, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, the UN, the EU, MEDREG, ENTSO-E, TERNA, EBDR, the World Bank, and INFRAMED.
The Naples PAM Energy Meeting dedicated its discussions to the “Integration of the electricity networks and of the gas networks in the Mediterranean”, and also tackled issues of coordination and cooperation among all the relevant parties.
PAM maintains that the challenges concerning the Mediterranean region, and in particular a rising energy demand and the need for environmental protection, should be tackled with the best commitment of all stakeholders, strengthening the dialogue, the collaboration and cooperation (within the countries and at the regional, international and global level) between Institutions (Parliaments, Governments, Regulators), public and private operators (education, research and development, industry, trading, finance, communication), consumers, and their Associations and Representative Organizations.
In this context, electricity and gas interconnections represent the more concrete means allowing international energy cooperation in terms of trade and energy exchanges among countries of the region.