Mayor of Potenza and ECR Member Mario Guarente was recently informed that his city would be twinned with the city of Mostaganem in Algeria in a peer-to-peer learning on energy efficiency in public buildings.

The initiative takes place within the Interreg MED programme as part of the territorial cooperation action on energy saving, aimed at creating a community of actors working on building efficiency, by transferring and consolidating some of the best practices developed in the projects of the 2014-2020 programming period.

Mayor Mario Guarente underlined Potenza's efforts: "we will put forward a concrete example of involving citizens in adopting active energy-saving behaviour through a fun competition between primary and secondary schools in the city that have struggled to save energy bills".  Through the partnership with the city of Mostaganem the Mayor hopes to "actively contribute to the promotion of sustainable and coordinated development in the Mediterranean".

The Interreg MED Efficient Buildings project is part of the MED Efficient Buildings Community. As the MED hub for innovative and shared energy efficiency solutions, this community facilitates the discussion on how to overcome the barriers that public organisations, namely local authorities, face to reduce their building´s energy consumption.