Background

On 11 July 2014, in Malta, at the High Level Euro-Mediterranean Conference on “The role of gas developments in the Mediterranean region”, and on 19 November 2014, in Rome, at the High Level Conference on “Building a Euro-Mediterranean energy bridge: the strategic importance of Euro-Med gas and electricity networks in the content of energy security”, EU Energy Ministers, Ministers of Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries, and the European Commission confirmed the importance of regional energy cooperation for ensuring secure, affordable and sustainable energy for the region and beyond. They also agreed that further strengthening regional cooperation in the Mediterranean on natural gas is required in order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose/intention and decided to establish a platform on gas. The Mediterranean Energy Observatory (OME) was appointed as Secretariat of this Platform.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Senior Officials Meeting of 31 March 2015 in Brussels agreed to frame Energy cooperation at large of all the 43 UfM Members on the basis of this platform on gas, as well as on two other platforms (on electricity and on renewable energy and energy efficiency).

On 6 May 2015, in Rabat, EU Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and the Moroccan Minister for Energy, Mr. Abdelkader Amara, unveiled three new Euro-Mediterranean platforms on gas, regional electricity market, and renewables and energy efficiency in the presence of the Presidents of OME, the Association of Mediterranean Energy Regulators (MEDREG), the Association of the Mediterranean Transmission System Operators (MED-TSO) and MEDGRID project.

On 11 June 2015, in Brussels, the UfM Gas Platform was officially announced and draft final Terms of Reference of the Platform was presented. The objective of the platform is to enhance the cooperation in the Euro-Med region between all stakeholders of the gas chain, and through a bottom-up approach to improve gas security by identifying barriers or opportunities.

The UfM Regional Electricity Market Platform (UfM REM Platform) and the UfM Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Platform (UfM REEE Platform) were officially launched on 12 October 2015 and 14 November 2016 respectively.

On 1 December 2016, in Rome, at the UfM Ministerial Meeting on Energy, the two-year work programmes of the three UfM Energy Platforms were endorsed. And Ministers in charge of energy called for a coherent regional and inclusive approach across the three platforms.