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European Commission promises "diplomatic protection" of Great Sea Interconnector

08:35 - 23 August 2024

Economy Reporter

A Directorate-General for Energy official has given assurances that the European Commission will use "all the diplomatic means at its disposal" to protect the Cyprus-Greece-Israel electricity interconnection project, Great Sea Interconnector (GSI).

The Commission official's assurances were given in a letter regarding the issue of the Turkish harassment of a ship that was carrying out, on behalf of the French Nexans , seabed surveys for the purpose of laying the cable of the Cyprus-Greece electrical interconnection in the sea area between Kasos and Karpathos in July.

In her letter, according to CNA sources, Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director of Green Transition and Integration of Energy Systems at the Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, stated that the GSI project is a project of common interest under EU Regulation 2022/869 concerning trans-European energy infrastructures and is included in the Commission's list of projects of common interest ( PCi ) adopted in November 2023, while as such it has received a significant subsidy through the Connecting Europe Facility (€657 million).

Based on these, the official assured in the letter that "the European Commission will use all the diplomatic means at its disposal to protect against the geopolitical risk it has mentioned."

It is recalled that the implementer had requested additional guarantees in case of non-completion or significant delay in the event that factors arise, which make it impossible to complete the development and construction of the interconnection line, and which are external and beyond the control of the Owner of the Interconnection Line, something the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) rejected in its regulatory decision on 2 July.

Also read: The deadline for CERA's decision on GSI is approaching - The critical meetings and constant pressures

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