Aymane Benjaa and the Future of Mediterranean Energy
INTERVIEW · Mediterranean Community for Renewable Energy The president of CEMER talks about the origins, goals and challenges of a project that views the Mediterranean as a common space for energy and cooperation.
NORD AFRICAMEDITERRANEOAFRICAMEDIO ORIENTEEUROPA
Q – Good afternoon. We are here with Aymane Benjaa, president of the French CEMER. Thank you for joining us to answer our questions.
Benjaa – Good afternoon to you.
Q – Let’s start with the fundamentals, for those who have never heard of it: what is CEMER?
Benjaa – CEMER is an association under French law working to create a federation of associations along both shores of the Mediterranean. Its ambition is to become a major international organisation: what the ECSC was for Europe yesterday, CEMER will be for the Mediterranean tomorrow.
We draw our inspiration from the model of the ECSC, the European Coal and Steel Community, established in 1951, which turned old rivals into lasting economic partners and laid the foundations of what would become the European Union.
CEMER is a new framework for regional cooperation centred on the energies of the future: solar, wind, hydroelectric, wave power, biomass. A space for exchange and cooperation, to make the western Mediterranean the world’s leading region for clean energy production.
Q – In what context did this political project come about? How did it emerge in France?
Benjaa – The project was born in 2020, as part of an initiative promoted by M’jid El Guerrab, a French member of parliament committed to standing alongside the peoples of the Maghreb and West Africa. He is a man who knows the situation on the ground and is deeply rooted in the reality of both shores of the Mediterranean. His personal commitment was decisive in turning an insight into a concrete project.
M’jid brought the resolution before the French Parliament on 26 November 2020, and it was adopted by an overwhelming majority: 353 in favour, 6 against. A cross-party vote that shows CEMER is not a partisan project. It is a project that unites.
The context? On the one hand, the northern Mediterranean – the European Union – has set itself ambitious climate targets, with a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. On the other, the countries of the South, the Maghreb in particular, possess colossal renewable energy resources. North Africa has a theoretical potential of 848,736 TWh a year: enough to meet global electricity demand more than 40 times over.
CEMER grew out of the recognition that this geographical and energy complementarity should generate an interdependence that benefits everyone. Instead of traditional North–South relations, we are proposing genuine productive solidarity.
Q – Starting from these resources, though, what are your concrete objectives? Are you working through advocacy networks, projects on the ground, or both?
Benjaa – Both, without a doubt. CEMER must not be just another think tank. It is an ensemblier, an integrator of projects that serve the general interest.
Our objectives operate on three levels. The first is reflection and data: we want to launch a forum for exchange that becomes the leading venue for reflection on, and the production of local data about, Mediterranean renewable energy. The second is action on the ground, and it is the concrete heart of the project: taking stock of the hundreds of local clean energy initiatives already present in the region, actively promoting them and financing them. This is where the CEMER label comes in, designed precisely to catalyse investment. The third level is international recognition: we want to become an institution recognised by states and international organisations.
So yes: political advocacy, but also a concrete presence on the ground. We work with civil societies, businesses, local authorities, and national and regional parliaments. It is a bottom-up movement.
Q – The vision appears to be distinctly pan-Mediterranean, so the first question that comes to mind is: who are your main partners on the two shores today?
Benjaa – We have important partners in France, but the heart of the project is the Franco-Moroccan partnership.
As a Moroccan patriot in love with France, who has been committed for several years to Franco-Moroccan cooperation and to the friendship between our two countries, I can tell you that CEMER is first and foremost a convergence of interests between two countries and two shores.
Morocco has extraordinary solar and wind resources. France has the technological and political expertise. Together, we are creating something unique.
And this partnership is taking shape in exemplary fashion: just look at Franco-Moroccan relations today. They are no longer confined to the patterns of the past. We are seeing concrete projects and new forms of cooperation emerge. And the exceptional treaty of friendship that will be signed in October 2026, during the state visit of His Majesty the King of Morocco to Paris, will be the first treaty of its kind in the history of the two countries.
It is in this spirit that CEMER operates. We also work with other actors, from Spain to Montenegro, but the Franco-Moroccan partnership is foundational: it is the strategic alliance that gives the project its credibility.
What we are looking for is not static government partners, but a dynamic that springs from the peoples and local communities themselves, on both shores of the Mediterranean.
Q – OK, I now have to move on to a more complex and delicate question. A project of this kind, starting from France and directed towards North Africa, can easily come across as a form of neocolonialism or, more precisely, green colonialism. In your view, what sets you apart from that model? What makes CEMER different?
Benjaa – That is an excellent question, and a legitimate one. Yes, there is a real risk that Euro-Mediterranean energy initiatives turn into “green colonialism”.
But as a Moroccan, and French at heart, who has been committed for several years to Franco-Moroccan cooperation, I have to tell you something: I raise this question from within my own region, my native country. And that is precisely why CEMER exists. Because we, the actors of the South, said: “No, we will not allow this pattern to be reproduced.” And we structured CEMER so as to prevent it.
The first principle is genuine complementarity, not extraction. We do not say to the Maghreb, “produce energy for us, for Europe”, but rather, “produce first and foremost to meet your own growing needs; then, if you have a surplus, export it on your own commercial terms.” It is a logic of energy sovereignty, first and foremost.
CEMER is also built from the bottom up and – a crucial point – the civil societies, businesses and citizens of the South are co-creators, not passive beneficiaries. The CEMER label guarantees that projects meet rigorous criteria: sustainable local development, jobs created in the host regions, fairly shared benefits, full financial transparency. Above all, though, we do not want to impose CEMER: it is offered to every Mediterranean country that wishes to join, with respect for their legal sovereignty and their national priorities.
That is what CEMER is: two shores that recognise they share a mutual interest and affirm it together, out loud, as equals.
Look at the 2030 World Cup, too: it is a perfect example of this new Mediterranean spirit. Two continents taking part together in a unifying project. That is the spirit we are carrying forward.
In the same way, the ties we are developing – such as those between Italy and Algeria over the past year, between Spain and Morocco, between France and Morocco – all show that this convergence is already under way. CEMER is its expression in the field of energy.
Q – We would now like to move on to another concrete issue. CEMER was approved by the French Parliament in 2020, but it has only begun to develop more concretely over the last two years. What obstacles are you encountering along the way, whether bureaucratic or among your main partners?
Benjaa – We are in a structuring phase. The 2020 parliamentary resolution gave it strong political legitimacy, but moving from a “political yes” to an “operational yes” takes time, and that is normal.
The challenges we face are of three kinds: political, financial and technical.
On the political front, governments have different electoral calendars and shifting priorities. Mobilising investment on a regional scale, in turn, requires mutual trust, clear legal frameworks and visibility on the return on investment. Finally, upgrading the existing electricity interconnections into a genuine regional system requires massive infrastructure investment.
Yet every small project that succeeds sets a precedent, builds trust and attracts new partners. The civil societies and young people of both shores are carrying this project forward with passion.
Q – Let’s narrow the focus to a specific case: looking at Italy, what are your expectations of it as a potential partner? Rome has several projects of its own on energy interconnections, including the much-discussed Mattei Plan. How do you see Italy’s position in this Mediterranean context?
Benjaa – Italy is a natural and strategic partner for CEMER. And I want to be very clear: we are not talking about competition between European countries. We are talking about complementarity. Italy is already a regional energy hub, with operational interconnections to Tunisia and Libya, a world-class grid operator in Terna and a global renewables champion in Enel, which has long been active in North Africa. When Italy talks about Mediterranean energy cooperation, it is not theorising: it is speaking from concrete experience. The Italian government has launched the Mattei Plan, and CEMER is the perfect framework to give substance to that very same vision. This is not a French initiative that Italy is expected to sign up to. It is a shared vision for the Mediterranean.
We see Italy as a leading political and operational partner.
Q – To conclude, where do you see CEMER in five years’ time? Where will it stand on the Mediterranean political stage?
Benjaa – In five years, I would like to witness a profound change: a transregional parliamentary consensus that turns this vision into reality. On the ground: at least 50 to 100 concrete CEMER-labelled projects, either operational or under construction, several billion euros of investment mobilised, and thousands of jobs created.
My main goal for the next 18 months is to mobilise the parliaments of both shores to vote to join CEMER. Governments sometimes hesitate, but parliaments directly represent the people. And the people want this transition.
Once 10 to 12 parliaments have voted for CEMER, governments will no longer have a choice. They will follow. Because it will have been their own people who asked for it.
That is the inverted model we are pursuing: from the people up to governments.
I would like to make a respectful appeal to the Italian Parliament:
“Italy has the opportunity to become an equal partner in the energy transformation of the Mediterranean. Vote to join CEMER. Work with us, with Morocco, with all the countries of the South and of the North. Show the region that the Mediterranean can come together around a positive project.”
We envisage CEMER extending across the entire Mediterranean: Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Montenegro in the North; Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt in the South.
Q – Is there anything else you would like to say before we conclude the interview?
Benjaa – I hope CEMER will become a model that other regions of the world can look to, giving rise to their own regional energy communities. This is a transition that decentralises and takes root locally, instead of being imposed from above.
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