Convergence towards Differentiation: The Case of Mediterranean Energy Corridors

Abstract

The EU has expressed the will to achieve a pan-European energy community with neighbouring countries based upon EU's energy related acquis. Under such a vision, European neighbours will have to selectively converge towards EU energy rules. The Mediterranean neighbourhood hosts key hydrocarbon producers and transit countries, but also promising sources of renewable energy, where different energy corridors for different sources and geographical origins coexist with a complex set of economic, technical and geopolitical factors. Mediterranean countries' preferences vary accordingly, fostering the differentiation of the acquis to be adopted. However, in order to develop a consistent policy, this article argues that differentiation should be corridor, not country-specific, and be conceived within a coherent framework of incentives.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge useful comments on a previous version of this article from participants in a EUPROX project seminar ‘Assessing Policy Convergence in the Euro-Mediterranean Area: Norms, Processes, Outcomes’, held in Barcelona in May 2009. The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes

¹ See the 12 June 2009 Directive concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity, Directive concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas, Regulation establishing an Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, Regulation on conditions for access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity, and the Regulation on conditions for access to the natural gas transmission networks.

² See Sachs and Warner (2005) for the best known statistical exercise testing the resource curse hypothesis.

³ See point 32 of the EU Statement at the Sixth meeting of the EU–Morocco Association Council, Brussels 23 July 2007.

⁴ The author would like to thanks Tobias Schumacher for suggesting this term at a EUPROX seminar.

⁵ For a detailed account of energy policy reforms in MPCs see OME (2007, 2008), Plan Bleu (2008) and RaL (2007).

⁶ In the energy jargon the upstream refers to exploration and production, the midstream to transport/transmission, and the downstream to distribution and commercialization.