The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, in accordance with the provisions of the bilateral cooperation agreement signed with the UfM on 9 April 2013, was represented at and contributed to the UfM Energy Platforms Annual Meeting, held in Barcelona on 29-30 January 2020.
The meeting gathered representatives of Euro-Mediterranean countries and regional energy sector stakeholder (also called operators). During the two days, members of the three Energy Platforms – the Regional Electricity Markets Platform; the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Platform; and the Gas Platform – shared the implementation status of their respective 2019 work programs, and presented the tentative work plan for 2020. Eng. Alessandro Ortis, Co-Chair of the PAM Panel on Economy and co-coordinator of the Group on Energy, represented PAM.
In Barcelona, participants had the opportunity to debate the current energy challenges present in the Mediterranean region and the growing energy demand, which is estimated to increase by 62% before 2040. Also, intensive industrialization and tourism growth were at the centre of discussions, as these are putting pressure on the available energy resources.
Participants examined the next Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Climate Change to be released in October 2020, and presented the objectives and priorities for the upcoming Ministerial Meeting on Energy. In addition to that, concrete examples from a selected number of States helped to illustrate the main topics related to the three platforms.
Finally, this meeting represented an excellent opportunity for PAM, a founding member of MEDREG and Med-TSO, to interact with institutional representatives and operators from Euro-Mediterranean states, in order to coordinate their participation at the forthcoming events to be organized by the PAM Panel on Trade and Investments on energy efficiency and sustainable developments, scheduled to take place in Cyprus and Morocco.