The concerted action "Med-Pol"started on December 1998 and will be completed on April 2002. The co-ordinator is Conphoebus S.p.A (I) a company of ENEL group and the other participants are Ciemat (ES), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ES), Higher Technical Institute (CYPRUS), JRC – Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (UE), University of Malta (MALTA), ANER-National Agency for Renewable energy (TUNISIA), CDER (MOROCCO), NREA New and Renewable Energy Authority (EGYPT) and the National Energy Research Center ( JORDAN).

Med-Pol project wants to promote new models for a sustainable rural development in non-electrified small-medium villages of the Third Mediterranean Countries (TMC) by means of the creation of local organisation like SMEs, Co-operative and NGO acting in the field of water and energy supply and management. The schemes for a sustainable development will be based on the application of soft and new technologies developed in RTD EU programmes and using as far as possible the Renewable Energies (R.E.).

The methodology of the project is based mainly on thematic meetings with specific topics logically connected but also on seminars for the training of local experts and on the creation of a WEB site for the dissemination of the results.

The main expected outcomes of the project are :

the launch of national programmes for water/energy sustainable supply and management in isolated rural areas of TMC;

the creation of a stable network among partners and other interested private and public subjects;

the involvement of EU economic operators in joint venture with TMC companies for production, installation, distribution, financing of initiatives.

So far four project meetings have been organised in Italy at Conphoebus premises, in Tunisia at the ANER centre, in Spain at the University of Las Palmas and in Morocco at CDER centre.

The main barriers which obstacle the diffusion of new sustainable technologies in TMC have been identified and the local experiences of the partners in the definition of policies and programmes aimed at overcoming the financial barriers have been analysed.

The contribution of external invited experts coming from European Energy Institution and Utilities allowed to identify some financing models for energy technologies in TMC and permitted to focus successful experiences of decentralised water and energy supply schemes in the rural areas.

In order to favour the exchange of information among all the interested subjects a WEB site of the project (www.medpol.org) has been already created. The next meeting will be held in Cairo on end of May 2001 at NREA’s premises and the specific topic will be the role of institutions and utilities in the identification of policy packages to promote projects on energy and water management.