Europe’s energy transition must strengthen territorial cohesion rather than deepen existing disparities.
That is the message from the e Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), the body that represents more than 100 regional authorities from 21 countries across Europe and beyond.
The new policy was adopted at a CPMR meeting on Visby, the largest island of Sweden.
It occupies a strategic position in the Baltic Sea and the Region of Gotland shared best practices and ongoing work on energy self-sufficiency scenarios in the event of insecurity or disconnection from the mainland.
Filip Reinhag, President of the CPMR and Regional Councillor at Region Gotland, highlighted the island’s strategic role in the Baltic Sea.
He emphasised that, “Europe’s electrification agenda will succeed in its regions if system optimisation is reconciled with territorial cohesion.
“From islands and maritime regions to peripheral areas and renewable-rich territories such as Gotland, regions are already managing the real-life implications of the transition.”
This includes, he said, integrating renewables, reinforcing grids, electrifying transport and ensuring security of supply.
“The real challenge is to ensure that Europe’s energy transition strengthens territorial cohesion rather than deepening existing disparities.
“Electrification cannot become a project only for already well-connected regions; it must work for all European territories,” he said.
The meeting heard that being at the first line of Europe’s borders, peripheral and maritime region combine many territorial assets: high renewable potential, ports and offshore basins, logistics nodes and industrial clusters.
Overall, the CPMR said it welcomes the European Commission’s growing focus on electrification, including the European Grids Package, the forthcoming Electrification Action Plan, and initiatives on permitting grid connections, flexibility, digitalisation, investment, and energy-system resilience.
However, it warns that the success of this agenda will depend on its territorial implementation.
CPMR set out keys pillars that tackle the regional dimension of Europe’s grids and electrification agenda.
These were presented by Artur Manuel Leal da Lima, CPMR Vice-President for Energy and Vice-President of the Regional Government of the Azores (Portugal).
da Lima stated: “The CPMR calls for a European grid and electrification agenda strongly anchored in regional transitions and territorial realities.
“Concretely, this means giving distribution grids a much more central role, involving regions as genuine partners in multi-level planning, and ensuring that permitting acceleration is then matched with stronger administrative capacity on the ground.
“At the same time, resilience and security must become integral parts of electrification planning, particularly for maritime, island and peripheral regions hosting strategic infrastructure and facing growing physical and cyber risks”.
Negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2028-2035) are entering a decisive phase and provided a key framework for the CPMR Political Bureau’s work, with particular attention given to the future of Cohesion Policy and the design of National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs).
The agenda was completed by discussions on the interconnected challenges of water and climate resilience, energy security, and preparedness, issues that are central to strengthening the resilience, competitiveness, and cohesion of Europe’s peripheral and maritime territories.
