CEER promotes regulatory cooperation (from the Eastern Partnership countries to Africa and to the Americas) Besides facilitating cooperation among the 38 Members and Observers within CEER, we also promote the sharing of experience and good practices with regulators in other regional associations through bilateral and multi-lateral exchanges. CEER supports European regulators and our neighbours CEER has a long history of cooperation with our neighbours, in particular with the regulators from the Energy Community (ECRB), the Mediterranean region (MEDREG) and the six countries of the Eastern Partnership. For example, digitalisation of the energy sector was the focus of the 8th Eastern Partnership workshop in Minsk, Belarus this month (21 -22 May 2019). The event was jointly organised by the CEER and the European Commission and (for the first time) ECRB. See the joint Press Release. For many years, CEER has organised (normally bilateral) workshops with MEDREG and the ECRB. The CEER-ECRB-MEDREG cooperation arrangement (signed in December 2018) will further strengthen multi-lateral cooperation between these three energy regulatory associations. CEER also provides technical support or capacity building capability to non-EU countries in support of Europe’s external policy objectives. Again, CEER’s main area of interest is helping regulators from Europe or Europe’s neighbouring areas. With the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, CEER assisted regulators from Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan in developing expertise on technical issues. Topics including wholesale energy markets, unbundling, quality of supply and the development of an independent energy regulatory body. Due to demand, in 2019, we expanded our geographical reach to provide capacity-building and training to regulators from Eastern and Southern Africa (RAERESA) on a range of issues. CEER on the global stage As the voice of Europe’s energy regulators internationally, CEER engages even further afield. We regularly have bilateral meetings with fellow regulators from the Americas. In March, we held the 14th EU-US regulatory roundtable. This month, we travelled to the Dominican Republic for 7th ARIAE-CEER roundtable with the Ibero-American association of regulators (see event proceedings and conclusions). CEER actively participates in the International Confederation of Energy Regulators (ICER) where we take a leading role on several issues, including ICER’s Women in Energy initiative. This month, we launched an exciting new “Schools2EnergyLeaders” pilot programme, whereby regulators from around the world make personal school visits to get in touch with the future generation of energy leaders talking face to face on a wide range of energy issues (from jobs in energy to electric mobility to cyber security). We hope that this movement will encourage the youth to study STEM subject and that we will attract talented young people (women and men) into the exciting world of energy. |