One of the priorities of the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council is regional governance, which plays an important role in the successful establishment and functioning of the EU Energy Union. The meeting of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan High Level Group (BEMIP HLG) officials will take place under the Latvian Presidency. It aims to assess progress in establishing the energy market and building the missing interconnections in order to ensure the competitiveness of the Baltic Sea Region's energy policy, energy security and sustainability.

BEMIP is considered a very successful example of effective and successful results-oriented interregional cooperation. This is confirmed by the number of BEMIP projects co-financed by the EU which have been included in the first list of projects of common EU interest. Work within BEMIP has been ongoing since 2009. In view of the successful implementation of tasks under the initial BEMIP format and this positive example of a regional governance model, work is currently focused on the future prospects for this cooperation format. 

Thus, the Latvian Presidency will initiate discussions on the future prospects for the BEMIP format as the central topic at the meeting in May in order to reach agreement on the text of the Memorandum of Cooperation on the new BEMIP format which could be signed by Ministers at the Energy Council on 8 June.

High-level officials from Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway (as an observer) will take part in the meeting. The European Commission provides leadership, monitors progress made by the working group and provides grants for organising the event.