The chairman of the board of directors of ANACOM, João Cadete de Matos, was unanimously elected chairman of the European Mediterranean Regulators Group (EMERG) http://www.emergonline.org/ in 2021. ANACOM will have the regulators of Palestine (chairmanship in 2020) and Israel (chairmanship in 2022) as vice-chairs.
During its chairmanship, ANACOM will give special priority to strengthening cooperation between all the participants, through the exchange of experiences and promotion of events of common interest, seeking to contribute to the development of electronic communications in the Mediterranean region. In this light, ANACOM will seek to actively contribute to the ideals and principles of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation underlying the genesis of EMERG, set out in the Barcelona Declaration of 28 November 1995. This declaration established the principles of a partnership aimed at transforming the Mediterranean region into a common space of peace, stability and prosperity by way of the reinforcement of political dialogue and cooperation in security and economic, financial, social and cultural matters.
The European Mediterranean Regulators Group (EMERG) was established on 1 July 2008 in Malta, as an independent platform of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA of Electronic Communications Networks and Services. EMERG gathers together representatives of the electronic communications sector of the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East regions, namely Algeria, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Switzerland, Tunisia and Turkey.
According to its Charter, the objectives of EMERG are the following:
- To act as a forum for regular discussions and exchanges of information for its Members on issues relating to electronic communications;
- To promote the approximation to the European regulatory framework and best practices among its Members;
- To monitor the development of the electronic communications in the Mediterranean area;
- To facilitate the cooperation and exchange of ideas and expertise with international organizations, other regulatory networks and sector experts;
- To prepare and contribute to the preparation of a region’s reservoir of documents, reports, benchmarks, presentations, analyses and common positions.
