The European Union has launched a plan to channel up to €25 billion into renewable energy across the Mediterranean as it seeks to cut its reliance on fossil fuels and shield itself from price shocks.
The initiative, unveiled on June 9, forms part of the Pact for the Mediterranean and targets investment in solar, wind, hydrogen, clean technology and modernised power grids in partner countries to the south and east by 2035.
The European Commission said the scheme, named the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy and Clean Tech Cooperation (T-MED), would help deliver 15 gigawatts of new renewable capacity and support more than 100,000 jobs in the region.
Brussels plans to deploy more than €5 billion in financial guarantees through European instruments designed to draw in public and private capital for energy projects in partner states.
“Public institutions alone cannot finance the scale of transformation we need,” said Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica. She said the model brought together governments, development banks, international financial institutions, project developers and private investors.
The Commission argued that the southern Mediterranean held vast untapped potential. It put the region’s renewable resource at about 2,300 gigawatts, more than double the capacity currently installed across the bloc.
Many countries in the area remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels, the Commission said, leaving them exposed to price swings and geopolitical tension.
Šuica said solar and wind power could be produced in much of the southern Mediterranean at costs 30 per cent to 40 per cent below European levels, though investment had lagged far behind what was required.
Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen said the energy crisis had shown that diversifying fossil fuel supplies was no longer enough to protect Europe from instability and rising prices.
He argued that faster electrification and a wider rollout of renewables formed the foundations of lasting energy security, independence and competitiveness. “We should never again take energy security for granted,” he said.
The plan also aims to improve regulatory frameworks, modernise electricity grids and ease cross-border energy trade, part of a wider effort to reduce the bloc’s energy dependence and deepen cooperation with its southern neighbours.
The Commission has opened a call for private investors until June 15 and for project promoters until August 15. It said it would chair the first meeting of the T-MED investment platform by October.
