A quote from ANSAmed, 12 December 2007

The European Union is a growing energy market, reliable and attractive, while the Maghreb has enormous energy potential which still has not been exploited. These seem to be the conditions for a marriage which the EU hurriedly wants to celebrate, hoping that the Mediterranean partners will not want to prolong the engagement period. The content of the agreement will be established by the energy ministers of Euro-Mediterranean countries who will meet on December 17 in Limassol (Cyprus) to outline the route to a single energy market. [...]

For the period 2008-2013, the EU has set three objectives: harmonisation of the policies and aiming at integration of the markets, promoting sustainable development and developing infrastructure of common interest. In particular, the action must be focused on speeding up reforms in the South Mediterranean in order to push markets towards convergence, monitoring progress and collecting data on the progress of action in a database available to everyone, removing trade barriers and paving the way to agreements between the individual countries (without necessarily respecting a single approach). [...]

According to Brussels, the future lies in the closer collaboration with Maghreb and Mashrek countries, rich in wind and sun and therefore particularly suitable for the development and use of clean energy, if provided by the appropriate means. [...]

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs [...], speaking at the Mediterranean Energy Observatory (OME) General Assembly meeting in Brussels two days ago, said that it is of common interest for the two coasts of the Mediterranean to tighten relations and create a single market which will bring development in South Mediterranean countries and solve the energy supply problem of the EU.