The Border Focal Point Network is delighted to announce the speakers for the 3rd edition of the ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ series. The event, entitled as “Border regions and the European Green Deal: managing the transition towards sustainable energy” will take place on 24th June 2021 from 10:00 CET to 11:20 CET. It will host speakers representing cross-border projects on renewable energy strategies, while representatives from the European Commission will provide the policy backdrop.

The event will be introduced by Nathalie Verschelde, Deputy Head at the European Commission’s DG REGIO. Nathalie Verschelde will present therole of border regions in enabling the transition towards a climate neutral Europe by 2050. In DG REGIO, she supports the implementation of the Interreg programmes on EU internal borders.

Ines Gavrilutis Project Manager at the Center for Renewable Energy (ZEE) and Chair of the Remote Sensing and Landscape Information Systems (FeLis) at the University of Freiburg, in Germany. She will present the RES-TMO project, an EU Interreg project focusing on the implementation of a renewables-based energy system in the Upper Rhine region, in the Franco-Germano-Swiss border.

Melinda loonstra Buzogány is Energy Transition Advisor at the Municipality of Emmen, in the Netherlands, where she works since 2007. As co-creator of innovative and new concepts, she will present  the INTERREG 'Smart Energy Region Emmen-Haren', which investigates whether electricity from renewable energies can be exchanged from the self-sufficient German Haren to the Dutch Emmen.

Cross-border cooperation on marine renewable energy will be presented by Ander González, Project Engineer, Cluster de Energía (Basque Energy Cluster), an association of over 170 organisations in the energy sector located in the Basque Country, in Spain. Basque Energy Cluster is part of the team running the interregional project BLUESARE, an initiative dedicated to renewable marine energies, allowing French and Spanish companies and organisations in the area to position themselves together as an international reference in this emerging sector.

After the presentations of the local projects, Vera Kissler, Policy Officer at the European Commission’s DG ENER, will present the EU policies on renewable energy, how they can support the energy system integration in the EU cross-border regions, and the current opportunities and potentials for further enhancement.

To sign up for the event, please clickhere.