Brussels, 15/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs launched the Single Electricity Market (SEM) in Belfast yesterday, together with Nigel Dodds, Northern Irish Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, and Eamon Ryan, Irish Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Piebalgs said: "The single electricity market is important not only for the island of Ireland, but also for the European Union. This is a significant contribution to the construction of the internal energy market. A regional initiative like SEM deserves to be widely copied. In this way, a European grid will gradually take form, and with it, a European energy policy". The commissioner congratulated all concerned on their exemplary cooperation, whether at the governmental, regulator, or transmission operator level. The SEM, agreed in 2004, is part of the All-Island project for Ireland. It includes common arrangements for gas, security of supply and sustainable energy measures, such as energy efficiency and managing consumer demand. From 1 November 2007, around 2.5 million electricity customers (1.8m in the Irish Republic and 0.7m in Northern Ireland) can look forward to long term benefits from a single competitive, sustainable and reliable market in wholesale electricity. (E.H.)