Mediterranean Programme - [05/18/2007]

Spain, Turkey and energy security

The CIDOB Foundation, the Instituto de Cuestiones Internacionales y Política Exterior (INCIPE) and the Center for European Studies at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara (Turkey), organised a seminar in Madrid in which representatives from the academic, business, political, military and diplomatic spheres of Spain and Turkey analysed energy security in Europe and the Mediterranean from a Hispano-Turkish perspective.

Joan Clos, the Spanish minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade, insisted on Spain’s steadfast support for Turkey’s accession, during the seminar’s welcoming dinner. In the same event, the Turkish Secretary of State, Sami Demirbilek, emphasised the growing importance of energy issues in Turkey’s international projection.

For his part, during the inauguration of the seminar, Narcís Serra, the president of the CIDOB Foundation, highlighted the excellent relations that exist between Turkey and Spain and argued that the energy dimension could be an area that would provide these bilateral ties with greater content. According to him, energy, together with water, could become the cement of co-operation between the countries north and south of the Mediterranean.

The seminar was organised into three round tables in which participants debated the role of energy in the international geopolitical context, the interests of Spain and Turkey in the energy field and the need to tackle a Euro-Mediterranean energy policy.

In the first round table, focusing on the role of energy in the international geopolitical context, it was emphasised that many interests, both national and private, converge in areas of energy production and transportation.

Later, in the second round table, dedicated to the interests of Turkey and Spain in the energy field, it was stressed that relations between Spain and Turkey have intensified, and the harmony between the two countries, the absence of problems between them and the intensification of trade co-operation were highlighted.

Finally, the third round table aimed to answer the question of whether or not a Euro-Mediterranean energy policy was necessary. It highlighted Turkey’s strong desire to join the European Union and its interest in co-operating very actively in the Euro-Mediterranean framework, providing that it is considered a European country.

The seminar participants coincided in the idea that the area of energy could be a fruitful one for collaboration between Spain and Turkey. They also asserted that energy, especially from an energy security approach, is a trump card in the defence of Turkey’s accession to the EU, as well as the idea that it is necessary to have a European energy policy that would make candidate countries partners. Finally, the speakers indicated that frameworks of co-operation must be found so that the European Union’s energy policy can attain a greater scope, both on a pan-European level (including Russia) and on a Euro-Mediterranean level (including all of the partners in the Barcelona Process).

>> See the conclusions of the seminar  (pdf 44kB)

>> See the complete programme (pdf 123kB)

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