Project description

Title: Euro-Mediterranean Energy Market Integration Project (MED-EMIP)
Commissioned by: European Commission, EuropeAid Cooperation Office (Directorate for Europe, the Southern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Neighbourhood Policy)
Financier: European Commission
Country: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
Overall term: 2008 to 2011

Context

The Union for the Mediterranean, formerly known as the Barcelona Process, aims to develop a zone of shared prosperity in the Mediterranean region and gradually to set up a free trade zone through economic and financial partnership. The European Commission has set up a European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and a European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) to this end, with a view to accelerating energy reforms in the Mediterranean partner countries and to harmonise standards and provisions. Focal areas are electricity and gas as well as developing international grids.

Objective

Support has been given to developing an integrated energy market in the Mediterranean area. Cooperation between the EU and southern and eastern Mediterranean countries has been strengthened. Focal areas are energy supply security and sustainability.

Approach

The Euro-Mediterranean Energy Market Integration Project (MED-EMIP) has initiated the exchange of experience and has supported innovative approaches to energy efficiency, renewable energies, demand-side measures and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Events with regional cooperation partners have been organised, for example with the Arab Union for Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electricity, the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) in Cairo and with the League of Arab States. The subjects addressed were the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), energy saving, transregional electricity and gas grids, guidelines for the promotion of renewable energies and the development of alternative energy-saving concepts.

Applications for support submitted to MED-EMIP by the partner countries have been implemented. Representatives of the EUROMED expert group on EU energy policy, the League of Arab States and the project’s partner countries now have an improved information base. Decisions at the respective national levels can thus be supported through more precise analyses.

The following activities have been carried out to this end:

• An internet portal has been set up, instruments for online analysis developed and newsletters published.
• A study on developing a Mediterranean ring (MEDRING) for improved integration of the electricity market has been prepared.
• An analysis instrument to compare the cost efficiency of demand and supply measures has been developed and used in several partner countries with the involvement of finance ministries and planning institutions.
• There has been cooperation with the League of Arab States and the Arab Union for Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electricity on subjects such as energy efficiency, CDM, Demand Side Management (DSM) and adaptation to EU directives.
• Support has been given to the Mediterranean Solar Plan.
• As well as cooperation with other regional projects and institutions, there has also been cooperation with Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

As well as GIZ International Services (GIZ IS) as consortium leader, MED-EMIP cooperation partners include the Observatoire Méditerranéen pour l’Energie (OME), Paris, Near East Engineering and Development Services (NEEDS), Beirut, and the law firm Kuhbier Rechtsanwälte, Brussels.

Further information

• Euro-Mediterranean Energy Market Integration Project (MED-EMIP)
  Local programme website
  http://www.medemip.eu