Brussels, 13/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 10 November, the EU and Algeria launched a twinning project (administrative and regulatory support) to help the Algerian Commission for Electricity and Gas Regulation (CREG). The project is financed by the EU as part of the support programme for implementing the EU-Algeria association agreement. “We have several reasons to be glad on this occasion”, said the EU ambassador in Algiers, Marek Skolil, at the opening of the launch seminar.
“First of all, this new twinning confirms the success and attractiveness of this programme, which comes as part of the implementation of the association agreement and which aims to accompany Algeria in its modernisation and in its move closer to the EU”, he added. In Skolil's view, “we too often forget that this agreement's objective and scope of action go far beyond just implementing the free trade area”.
This project “makes Europe's accompaniment concrete in the energy domain, which is the priority sector in our cooperation - I would even say vital sector, for both parties”, Skolil said. In July 2013, the EU and Algeria signed a protocol agreement establishing a “high level strategic dialogue on energy”. This dialogue “is beginning to get up to speed, opening new perspectives for the future in which Algeria will consolidate its position as a major gas supplier for Europe”, he said.
The EU intends, he says, “to bring concrete support to institutional reforms in the electricity and gas sector - reforms that improve the effectiveness of Algerian regulation and contribute not only to the improvement of the public service but also to the rapprochement desired between Algeria and the EU”. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)