In the past few years, the energy world has experienced a movement of restructuring aimed at opening up to competition and privatising the electricity and gas sectors - traditionally monopolistic and under the control of states. This process, which emerged in industrialised countries, now also concerns Mediterranean countries. Under the pressure of the international environment and of economic constraints, several Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries have opened up electricity generation to the private sector and tend to apply competitive models to their gas and electricity industries.

This study proposes an analysis of the reasons and the implications of the current institutional developments in the electricity and gas sectors. It reviews energy policies and the state of reforms in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries as of 2004. Hide