Multilateral cooperation in the Mediterranean region: Med-TSO’s Secretary General at WTO & PAM conference in Belgrade

On 12 and 13 July, the Secretary General of Med-TSO, Angelo Ferrante, was in Belgrade, Serbia, to participate to the meeting on “Trade facilitation and Investments in the Western Balkans”, organized jointly by the World Trade Organization and by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, held at National Assembly of Serbia. The two-day meeting was focused on the Euro Mediterranean economic-political convergence processes and on the improvement of Trade and Investments flows in the Euro-Mediterranean region through WTO Rules and negotiations.

During the session “The regional economic integration in the Western Balkans Area”, held on 13 July, the Secretary General intervened on multilateral cooperation in the Mediterranean region, highlighting that transmission infrastructures are essential for the market and, as also recalled by the European Union, energy infrastructures are at the forefront of the effort for promoting a more resource-efficient, more sustainable and more competitive economy. Where an electricity market already exists, as in many Balkans countries, it is necessary to guarantee adequate liquidity to the market for achieving the efficient utilization of existing and envisaged interconnections.

In the Mediterranean, he added, the development of interconnections is essential for meeting the increasing electricity demand of Southern and Eastern Countries and favor the expected huge RES development programs.
The just completed Mediterranean Project is a good example of multilateral coordination among the Mediterranean TSOs, aiming at defining a shared framework made of rules, guidelines, methodologies and scenarios capable to foster investments in the region and favor its integration. The new Mediterranean Project 2, launched on 1 June with the support of the European Union, will consolidate and, to some extent, enlarge the perimeter of Med-TSO activities and give additional impulse to the Mediterranean integration process.