Renewable energies remain marginal in the European neighbourhood, and their contribution to economic and human development is still largely unexplored. Directive 2009/28 on renewable energies explicitly contemplates green electricity imports from third countries, and the Mediterranean Solar Plan offers an economic and institutional framework for its deployment in the Southern neighbourhood. This paper addresses the question of whether these initiatives have the potential to become a driver for the development of the Southern neighbourhood or should instead be better considered as an EU-centric project to support European renewable industries and engineering firms. This paper argues that, in order to become a driver of economic development for the region, those initiatives should consider accompanying measures to foster investment, training, industrial delocalisation, and technology transfers.

Avant la
publication du rapport final présentant les recommandations clés des 16 think tanks mobilisés dans ce projet, 5 séries
de Policy Papers portent sur les sujets suivants : Migration, Voisinage de l’UE, PSDC, Ressources stratégiques et Politiques économiques (publication le 12 Mars).

Ce Policy Paper
fait partie de la série intitulée «Ressources Stratégiques de l’UE: quelle action extérieure européenne?» qui
comprend les contributions de Sami Andoura (Notre Europe – Jacques Delors Institute), Clémentine d’Oultremont (Egmont), Annika Ahtonen et Andrea Frontini (EPC), Nadège Chambon (Notre Europe – Jacques Delors Institute) et  Stephen Tindale (CER).

Voir les
autres contributions de la série ressources stratégiques >>