On 18 September 2019, the
Communications Officers Network Meeting met in Brussels, back-to-back with the Institutional WG. The meeting saw the participation of
13 people including members from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Portugal.
The meeting
took stock of the recent communication activities that have been developed over that past year.
Recent publications such as the Annual Report, leaflet, success stories and the training handbooks were presented, as well as the recent
videos and the growing
social media feeds
. A special focus was made on the resources that are made available on the
website and the
Members’ area. The Group praised the new website’s clarity and functionalities, indicating that it constitutes their main source of information on MEDREG’s activities, followed by the newsletters.
Looking at the
up-coming events, the COs raised interest in the joint
MEDREG-Med-TSO training on regulation of infrastructure investment that will take place in Rome next 10-12 December. The
Presidents and Commissioners’ networking event organized on 10 December as well as the
Forum which will be held in Brussels back-to-back with the GA on 6 November
was evoked too.
The second part of the meeting was dedicated to the
communication strategy for 2020-2022, seeking inputs from the COs to identify communication activities that address the impact of MEDREG’s work on citizens’ life, gender issues and sustainable energy. The COs brainstormed and put forward several ideas, based on the MEDREG’s strategy and on the current trends of communication:
- Focus on infographic and increasingly use videos to convey our messages.
- Open a Facebook account.
- Produce an animated video that would explain how energy regulation contributes to improve consumers’ access to energy, improve quality of service and to a broader extend foster social and economic development. The video would place the consumers as the main protagonists of the story.
- Create a data bank of NRAs that would be accessible on the Members area.
- Other ideas were discussed such as a quiz for Members and wider audience to test their knowledge about the Mediterranean and the energy sector; a joint event with national energy consumer associations; and hold a stand in an event (like the EU Sustainable Energy Week or the International Beirut Energy Forum) to raise awareness about MEDREG, the role of regulators, our project and successes.
- Award prizes to the best report and to the most active regulator.
- The COs would be very keen to have the opportunity to get trained on communication and public relations in order to build their capacity and skills to engage with the press, communicate adequately on social media and develop the right communication tools for the various energy stakeholders they are interacting with. In addition, they would be keen to exchange campaigning and communication best practices between peer regulators.
As a next step, these proposals will be taken into account in the design of the communications activities that will be envisaged in the grant contracts for the next three years.
Finally, the group shared some of the ways which are used by their NRAs to raise awareness of their institution and communicate with energy regulated entities such as DISCOs and consumers.