Interconnector ‘a priority’, Papanastasiou says
The Great Sea Interconnector is “a priority” for the government, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said on Monday.
“It will definitively end our country’s energy isolation, enhancing the security of supply, competition between energy producers and providers, and creating opportunities for energy exports,” he told the Eastern Mediterranean energy conference in Limassol.
His comments came after a meeting attended by representatives of Cyprus’ energy regulatory authority (Cera) and its Greek counterpart (Raeww), as well as Greece’s deputy energy minister Nikos Tsafos and Cyprus’ ambassador in Athens Stavros Avgoustides on the matter on Friday produced “several points of convergence”, amid ongoing differences between Greece and Cyprus over the matter.
The Cyprus News Agency quoted sources from inside the Greek energy ministry as having said that the talks “took place in a highly constructive atmosphere”, and that “all the individual regulatory issues of the [interconnector project] were raised”.
That meeting, and a teleconference involving Papanastasiou, European energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen, and Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou, aimed to resolve the differences between Greece and Cyprus, particularly in light of Cypriot Finance Minister Makis Keravnos accusing Papastavrou of “fake news” on the matter last week.
The following day, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis called for clarity regarding Cyprus’ position.
“This is because, of course, the national benefits which are produced may be very important, but technical and economic viability is also a necessary condition with regard to European funding,” he said.
Keravnos’ comments had come after Papastavrou had said that he “does not show” the studies which he claimed demonstrate the project is not sustainable.
In response, he said the studies had been commissioned by Papanastasiou, that they were “properly delivered” to the Greek energy ministry, and that they had even been sent to Papastavrou’s predecessor Theodoros Skylakakis.
Papastavrou had previously decried what he described as “constantly conflicting messages from the Cypriot side” over the matter of the interconnector.
The rift between the two governments is sourced from the Cypriot government’s initial agreement to make five annual payments of €25m to Greece’s independent transmission system operator Admie before the interconnector is operational, but which it has thus far withheld.
Papanastasiou said last month Cyprus will pay the first €25m instalment when the project is being “implemented in its entirety”, and that the construction of cables alone is “not enough” to meet this criterion.