Energy regulators across Europe and the Eastern and Mediterranean region sign cooperation arrangement

Press Release

Energy regulators across Europe and the Eastern and Mediterranean region sign cooperation arrangement

Vienna, 12 December 2018

A signing ceremony held in Vienna, Austria, brought together the Presidents of three regional associations of energy regulatory authorities. Presidents Garrett Blaney of CEER¹, Giorgi Pangani of the ECRB² and Gülefşan Demirbaş of MEDREG³ signed a Cooperation Arrangement that will strengthen regulatory cooperation between energy regulators across Europe through to the Mediterranean, South East Europe and Black Sea regions.

All three associations have dedicated themselves to fostering a compatible and transparent energy regulation by promoting best practices and exchanging experiences. There are also some common memberships of the organisations, which naturally promotes convergence of goals and principles.

“The arrangement is a logical next step forward for our organisations for greater pan-European integration” said Garrett Blaney, CEER.

“It reaffirms the values that we all share and puts our cooperation on a firmer basis” added Giorgi Pangani, ECBR.

“We are moving from individual initiatives for cooperation to an integrated approach” said Gülefşan Demirbaş, MEDREG.

Three chairs stressed the importance of achieving a common set of harmonised regulatory and legal rules for interconnected gas and electricity systems.

In particular, this cooperation lays the groundwork for enhanced cooperation across four fields:

• exchanging best practices in the field of energy market regulation;
• promoting capacity building, joint events and training on regulatory topics;
• strengthening existing bilateral and trilateral cooperation mechanisms; and
• developing joint reports where feasible and beneficial for all three organisations.

On the occasion of the Austrian presidency of the Council of the European Union, the signing ceremony took place at the premises of Austrian regulator, E‑Control in Vienna. “I am honoured to have these three Presidents here and to host this event. I am now looking forward to seeing this cooperation evolve in practice” says E-Control Executive Director, Wolfgang Urbantschitsch.

1. The Council of European Energy Regulatory (CEER) is the voice of Europe’s national energy regulators. Its Members and Observers are the independent statutory bodies responsible for energy regulation. CEER, based in Brussels, deals with a broad range of energy issues including retail markets and consumers; distribution networks; smart grids; flexibility; sustainability; and international cooperation. CEER represents 37 energy regulatory authorities, comprising 29 Members (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and 8 Observers (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Georgia,  Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and the Swiss Confederation). See www.ceer.eu

1. The Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB) has nine Contracting Parties - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine. ECRB is the independent regional body of energy regulators in the Energy Community and beyond. ECRB activities build on three pillars: providing coordinated regulatory positions to energy policy debates, harmonizing regulatory rules across borders and sharing regulatory knowledge and experience. ECRB is an institution of the Energy Community. The Energy Community is a union of nine members from South East Europe and the Black Sea region and the European Union. ECRB promotes the development of a competitive, efficient and sustainable regional energy market that works in public interest. See www.energy-community.org

1. MEDREG is the Association of Mediterranean Energy Regulators, which brings together 27 regulators from 23 countries, spanning the European Union (EU), the Balkans and North Africa: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. Mediterranean regulators work together to promote greater compatibility of the regional energy markets and legislation, seeking progressive market integration in the Euro-Mediterranean basin. See www.medreg-regulators.org

A case study was recently published on the EgyptERA peer review conducted on Egypt and shows the achievements accomplished is available online here.

More information is available in the news alert is avialable on the Medreg website at:

http://www.medreg-regulators.org/Publications/Brochures.aspx  

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