Press Release: Energy: European Commission proposes to strengthen regional cooperation

Cross-border regional energy cooperation delivers lower prices and higher security of supply, and is a crucial building block of a competitive European Single Energy Market. The European Commission has set out its ideas on how to reinforce such regional cooperation in its Communication "The future Role of Regional Initiatives", which identifies new tasks of Regional Initiatives such as the development of cross-border infrastructure and the implementation of the Third Energy Package including network codes. It also proposes a new governance structure of existing Regional Initiatives and an adjustment to their geographical scope to make regional cooperation more effective. Regulators, transmission systems operators and other stakeholders are invited to express their views on these ideas by 15 February 2011.