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Lebanon’s Minister of Energy Heads to Damascus to Discuss Technical Files

Minister of Energy and Water in the Lebanese caretaker government Walid Fayyad. (Reuters file photo)
Minister of Energy and Water in the Lebanese caretaker government Walid Fayyad. (Reuters file photo)
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Lebanon’s Minister of Energy Heads to Damascus to Discuss Technical Files

Minister of Energy and Water in the Lebanese caretaker government Walid Fayyad. (Reuters file photo)
Minister of Energy and Water in the Lebanese caretaker government Walid Fayyad. (Reuters file photo)

Lebanese caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad headed to Damascus on Monday for a two-day visit to discuss files mainly related to water resources.

Lebanon and Syria are bound by agreements regarding the Orontes River, which arises in eastern Lebanon, flows to Syria and continues into Türkiye. The flooding of the river last year caused major damage to the agricultural fields in Akkar, northern Lebanon.

In a statement, the Ministry of Energy said Fayyad will hold talks with Syrian Minister of Water Resources Hussein Makhlouf with whom he will co-chair a meeting of the Lebanese-Syrian Joint Committee for the Water Sector, in the presence of Secretary General of the Syrian-Lebanese Supreme Council Nasri Khoury.

The two sides will discuss periodic follow-ups of the mechanisms for implementing the Orontes River and the Nahr al-Kabir (Great River) agreements, and ways to preserve the environment of the shared basins and guarantee sustainable and fair investments.

Fayyad and his Syrian counterpart will also touch on cooperation to limit the flooding of the Nahr al-Kabir on the agricultural plains in Akkar, as well as efforts to face the problems of displacement and future projects related to sanitation and irrigation.

On the sidelines of the visit, Fayyad will meet with Syrian Oil Minister Firas Qaddour and Syrian Minister of Electricity Engineer Ghassan Al-Zamil to discuss issues of common interest, according to the ministry’s statement.

A few weeks ago, Fayyad announced his intention to visit Damascus to follow up on issues related to rivers, pledging to improve the operation of the Al-Bared hydroelectric power plant, and to clean the course of the large river.

He also talked about a $5 million funding from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which will be used to clean the course of the Grand River and increase turbines for the hydroelectric power plant in Nahr al-Bared.

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FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.