A regional electricity market will boost "fruitful co-operation between the two sides of the Mediterranean", said Algerian Energy Minister Yousef Yousfi.
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco decided to move forward with plans to integrate their electricity markets with that of Europe.
"Building a regional electricity market will form a base for fruitful co-operation between the two sides of the Mediterranean," Algeria's Yousef Yousfi said Sunday (June 20th) in Algiers during the first-ever AMU-EU Council of Energy Ministers.
The ministers also agreed on a five-year programme that includes developing renewable energy sources and boosting regional commercial exchanges.
"The important message" conveyed by Maghreb nations was to boost the energy partnership between the two areas, European Commissioner for Energy Günter Oettinger said at a joint press briefing with the ministers following the meeting, according to APS.
Oettinger said the EU hopes to get 20 per cent of its electricity needs from the Maghreb by 2050 by depending on renewable energies projects.
The purpose of the June 20th meeting was to evaluate progress achieved under an agreement signed by the three parties in Rome in December 2003 and another co-operation protocol signed in 2007.
Signed at the session by Algerian Energy Minister and council chair Yousef Yousfi, Tunisian Industry and Technology Minister Afif Chelbi and Moroccan Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra, the "Algiers Declaration" said that energy market integration would "contribute to the creation of a free trade space between Mediterranean countries and EU".
The ministers reiterated their "will to continue internal reforms in the field of energy and to use all available opportunities in the field of bilateral and multilateral co-operation among the three countries and EU with the aim of introducing the necessary reforms and developing the energy sector in each country".
Two years ago, Algeria and Morocco agreed on a 400-kV power grid project aimed at transmitting electricity to Spain via Morocco in order to compensate for blackouts. A similar project linking Tunisia and Italy is in the works.
Integrating the Maghreb electricity market with that of the EU would have a positive effect on the region's energy policy and open the field for greater strategic trans-Mediterranean co-operation, Moroccan Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra said at the meeting.
The Moroccan minister said that Arab Maghreb countries have shown their will to establish a regional electricity market that requires co-ordination among the regulatory bodies in the sector and harmonisation of procedures on tariffs.
Benkhadra also said that the Euro-Mediterranean power partnership forces the EU to exert more efforts in the field of technology transfer and to make its markets more open to products from its southern neighbours.
Tunisian Energy Minister Afif Chelbi said the co-operation taking place in the field of renewable energies was key and "will be further consolidated".
By Walid Ramzi for Magharebia in Algiers
© Magharebia.com 2010
