The European Commission announced, on Tuesday 9 June, the launch of its Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy and Clean Tech Cooperation Initiative (T-MED), under the ‘Pact for the Mediterranean’, presented in October 2025 (see EUROPE 13732/2). The partnership’s member countries are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.
The aim of this Initiative is to strengthen the voluntary cooperation of Mediterranean countries with the European Union in the field of renewable energy and clean technologies.
Low-cost clean energy. “Our partners in the southern Mediterranean hold unmatched renewable potential”, said Dubravka Šuica, the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, at the launch of the initiative, on Tuesday 9 June. “Renewable energy is 30% to 40% cheaper to produce in North Africa, compared to Europe. At the same time, there is a big gap between resource potential and actual investment flows. We can unlock this massive potential, powering up our whole region”.
Specific targets for 2035. T-MED aims to help deliver 15 GW of additional renewable energy capacity in partner countries, under development or under construction, by 2035, through European Union financial instruments, notably the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+). In addition, the initiative is counting on three cross-border electricity and hydrogen projects ready for a final investment decision by 2035 and three industrial value chains in clean technologies by the same deadline.
The T-MED Initiative is based on five pillars. First, a European Commission investment platform, to be launched by September 2026, will make it possible to identify projects and find appropriate financing tools.
Next, a Regulatory Accelerator, which seeks to speed up regulatory convergence between the EU and partner countries, increase transparency and aims for regulatory reforms in five partner countries by 2035 in order to encourage private investment. Access to European funds and technical support will gradually be made conditional on regulatory reforms.
Third, the modernisation of infrastructure and electricity transmission grids forms part of the initiative, modelled on a similar pattern to the ‘grids’ package (see EUROPE 13767/4) and the digitalisation of grids in the EU (see EUROPE 13880/4).
The final two pillars aim to train qualified staff in the renewable energy sector and create an ecosystem conducive to the development of clean technologies.
€25 billion to be found. The Commission initiative takes the form of a regulatory framework designed to attract private investment. By 2035, the objective is to mobilise up to €25 billion in investment from private and public sources, “to begin with”, Dubravka Šuica said. When the Pact for the Mediterranean was announced last October, the Commission hoped to mobilise five times more private capital than public capital.
“Thanks to an EU guarantee capacity of €5 billion, we can mobilise up to €25 billion in additional investment”, said Dan Jørgensen, Commissioner for Energy, on 9 June. “We want to encourage financial institutions, commercial banks and other investors to turn towards promising long-term investment assets, namely renewable energy and clean technologies.”
Commissioner Šuica held a dialogue with private sector stakeholders, on 9 June, to address their role in accelerating investment in renewable energy in the region, as part of EU Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels.
A call for expressions of interest was launched in April 2026 for private investors, ending on 15 June, and a call for projects was launched on Tuesday and will remain open until 15 August.
A win-win initiative, according to Commission. The Initiative also aims to strengthen the energy security of the European Union and the partner countries, a Commission official explained. For the EU, importing low-cost decarbonised energy boosts European competitiveness. For the partner countries, its production is a driver of prosperity. “European companies are being encouraged to establish their supply chain in third countries”, he added.
Between 400,000 and 500,000 jobs could be created in North Africa by 2040 thanks to this initiative, according to IRENA estimates. A skills programme is also being launched in order to “ensure that qualifications match labour market needs across the energy sector”.
On 17 April, the Commission presented the first 21 actions of the ‘Pact for the Mediterranean’ (see EUROPE 13851/1). T-MED is described as “a key initiative” of this Pact.
Read the T-MED Initiative: https://aeur.eu/f/m8p
Access the calls for projects: https://aeur.eu/f/m9c (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)