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“The decision of the Republic of Cyprus to participate or not in the whole project will be taken immediately”
At the beginning of next week, the Ministers of Finance and Energy, Makis Keravnos and Giorgos Papanastasiou, respectively, will have a meeting, during which it will be decided, as informed by the Cyprus News Agency, whether or not the Republic of Cyprus will participate and with what amount in the Great Sea Interconnector (formerly EuroAsia Interconnector) project, which concerns the electrical interconnection, in the first phase, of Cyprus – Crete and, in the second phase, with Israel.
After taking any decision taken at the meeting between the two of Ministers, the Minister of Energy, according to the same information, will submit a relevant proposal at the session of the Council of Ministers, which will be held under the President of the Republic next week for approval.
It is noted that on last Tuesday, January 23, an international company presented the study it carried out for the Great Sea Interconnector and which positively evaluates the whole project, thus strengthening the possibility that the Republic of Cyprus will participate in the project.
The company's evaluation showed that the Great Sea Interconnector will have “a great value for the electricity market of Cyprus and at the same time a very high geopolitical value”, due to the fact that Cyprus will be in the middle of the interconnection of the national electricity grids of Israel and Greece and by extension of Europe.
As the Minister of Energy had previously stated to the Cyprus News Agency, after the presentation of the study, “the decision of the Republic of Cyprus to participate or not in the whole project will be taken immediately” and then the corresponding message will be given to the Independent Electricity Transmission Operator (ADMIE) which is the implementing body of the project.
He also said that the period of time that the Republic of Cyprus has set to take its decision is until January 31, 2024, and added that after the decision, the corresponding message will be given to the ADMIE of Greece, which is the implementing body of the entire project.< /p>
Mr. Papanastasiou explained that ADMIE will create a special purpose company (Special Purpose Vehicle) and then will follow the issue of share capital for which there will be interest in participation.
The Republic of Cyprus is expected to participate in the share capital with €100 million. which were included as a loan through the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
However, interest in investing in the Great Sea Interconnector project was also expressed by the Investment Fund of the United Arab Emirates (TAQA) during the meeting held on the morning of On Friday, TAQA's CEO, Jasim Husain Thabet and members of the investment fund with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulidis at the presidential palace.
The Great Sea Interconnector concerns the interconnection of the national electricity transmission networks of Cyprus, the Israel and Greece (via Crete), with a capacity of 2,000 MW.
