| Press Release (CEER-PR-19-08) European and Mediterranean regulators team up on empowering consumers to benefit from the energy transition 
Brussels/Vienna/Milan, 26 June 2019 Yesterday’s trilateral workshop of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER1), the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB2) and the Association of Mediterranean Energy Regulators (MEDREG3), in Brussels, aims to strengthen regulatory dialogue across Europe and the broader Mediterranean region to support consumers in becoming active energy market participants. The focus of this joint event was on consumer empowerment in the digital era and in the context of the Clean Energy for All Europeans package. Digitalisation provides opportunities to increase the productivity of the existing energy system and introduce new business models and enables new products and players to enter the markets. It enables home management and mobility services, makes switching easier for consumers and facilitates consumer participation. At the same time digitalisation brings new challenges to ensure data protection and privacy. Regulators of the three regional regulatory bodies, together with representatives of the European Commission, discussed how to enable digitalisation and protect consumers against the risks as well as the role of smart grids, self-consumption and energy communities for collective engagement. Regulators agreed on the importance of market monitoring to ensure that markets deliver benefits for consumers. The joint workshop, the second such tri-lateral workshop, is the result of enhanced cooperation between the three institutions confirmed in a cooperation arrangement that was signed in December 20184. CEER Vice-President Anne Vadasz Nilsson said: “Europe’s Clean Energy Package offers a number of instruments to create truly consumer-driven energy markets. Europe’s energy regulators are supporting customers in availing of these opportunities. CEER has just published a report on empowering and engaging consumers through self-consumption and energy communities5.” ECRB President, Mr Giorgi Pangani added: “Digitalisation links energy markets more closely across borders and regions. Our duty as regional regulatory bodies is to join our forces and address the potentials and challenges of digitalisation in a coordinated way”. MEDREG Deputy Secretary General Mr Hasan Özkoç underlined: “Decentralised and self-energy production has increasing potential in the Mediterranean region. This can put consumers in a driving seat if we join our regulatory activities to support them in this transition period.” Ends - see Notes for Editors | 
