Tunis/Tunisia — The European Union and Tunisia share a "win-win" partnership and the EU is willing to scale up bilateral cooperation in the green hydrogen field, said Director General of the Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR) Gert-Jan Koopman

The specialised workforce, notably engineers and executives, must be trained and supported in the various specialties of the Industry Department, he added at a meeting held with Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Neila Gonji.

The meeting, which was also attended by EU Ambassador to Tunisia Marcus Cornaro, offered the opportunity to discuss opportunities for cooperation and partnership with the EU, notably in the sectors of Electric power transmission, energy and renewable energy, and the state of progress of the electricity interconnection project between Tunisia and Italy.

Gonji for her part, pointed out the solidity of Tunisian-European relations and the availability of the capacities and expertise of the specialised workforce and the technological and energy infrastructure necessary for the achievement of major projects in Tunisia, notably in electrical power transmission and renewable energy generation fields.

The minister reviewed on the occasion, the national renewable energy development programme, which seeks to produce 35% of electricity from renewable energy by 2030, indicating that the ministry had launched a call for tenders to produce 1,700 megawatts of electricity from solar photovoltaic energy under concessions.