Requests information from the President of the Republic on the electrical interconnection, the Minister of Energy
Letter in the form of urgent will send today to President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulidis, regarding the progress of the electrical interconnection project, the Parliamentary Committee on Energy, Trade, Industry and Tourism, as announced on Tuesday by the Committee's President, Kyriakos Hatzigianni.
In his statements after the end of today's session of the Commission, and asked about the issue of the electrical interconnection and those that have seen the light of day, Mr. Hatzigianni said that “as a Commission we are sending a letter to the President of the Republic, informing him of the positions and contentof the discussion we have had so far as the Energy Committee of the Parliament and essentially the concerns we have that this project has some gaps in its completion and from these gaps arise potential risks”.
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“Therefore, in a spirit of good cooperation, we must inform the President of the Republic in writing, in fact, based on the publications of the last 24 hours”, he said.
The President of the Energy Committee added that “we want him to inform us that these reports exist or are correct, that is, that alternative ways will be found, so that the consumer does not pay in this way but the consumer pays in another way”.
“This letter will be sent as a matter of urgency to the President of the Republic himself and we definitely ask to have those binding answers from him that at the end of the day the concerns of the Parliament must be a commitment or one based on the decision of the Cabinet itself Council, without this meaning that we enter into restrictions or demand restrictions on the authority of the Council of Ministers”, he added.
In response to a question, Mr. Hatzigianni said that the Commission's concerns are purely related to the problems or issues for which there are valid concerns on the part of the Ministry of Finance, on the part of the entire Parliament and on the part of the Auditor General, as well as the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority itself.
The Member of Parliament of the Democratic People's Party, Marinos Mousioutas, underlined that the electrical interconnection of Cyprus, Greece, Israel is a huge project of strategic importance and must be done properly in the interest of the Cypriot consumer.
Within the context of the project electricity interconnection Cyprus-Greece-Israel, the Member of Parliament of the Democratic Party, pointed out the necessity of safeguarding the interests of the Republic of Cyprus and Cypriot consumers.
The MP of the Environmentalists Movement – Citizens' Cooperation, Stavros Papadouris, said in his statements that regarding the issue of electrical interconnection, it seems that “Manolios has changed and changed his clothes”.
“This is happening right now. Where we had the regulatory decision from CERA, where it clearly stated that the consumer should not bear any cost before the project is completed, we learn lies and it is confirmed by today's publications that it seems that there is an intention on the part of the state to grant these 25 million every year, a total of 125 million until 2029, so that instead of the consumer paying, the taxpayer pays,” he said.
“And from where now: From money that will come from the rights of the auction of pollutants, to remind that these rights, this money come with specific purposes”, he noted.
They are coming, he said, “with the aim of helping the transition of our country in terms of the green transition, so that by 2030 our country will be ready and we will not be paying what we are paying in fines to the polluters”.
“Therefore, the Commission proceeded today with a letter to the President of the Republic, where it requests official information if what we have read really exists and if there will be any decision in the next few days”, added Mr. Papadouris.
“Personally I feel that we are living an absurd scenario, i.e. a private company, yes it is definitely a project that we all want, there is no person who does not want the Cyprus-Greece connection, but to be realistic a private company, which started with a calculation of 1.4 billion went to 1.9 billion, 757 million comes as a subsidy and at this moment the main questions are whether the cost will really stay at 1.9 or if it will go to 2.5 or at 3 or 4 billion, no one can guarantee”, he added. As Mr. Papadouris said, “we want the project to move forward”. “We know what it means to be in energy isolation, but at the end of the day it should proceed with the right procedures,” he added.
