Twelve EU member states, including Cyprus, have missed the minimum interconnection target allowing at least 10% of their installed electricity output be available across borders.
The European Commission had earlier last week unveiled a series of communications, outlining its ambition to create an Energy Union and achieve the 10% electricity interconnection target, pointing out also that EU pledges for a forthcoming global deal for climate change are expected to be hammered out later this year in Paris.
An informal briefing was held in Nicosia on Friday, hosted by the European Commission Representation in Cyprus, the French Embassy and the Ministry of Energy, in order to provide an outline of EU objectives and national priorities.
Although member states are required to have at least 10% of their installed electricity production capacity available to cross borders by 2020, Cyprus, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom seem to be missing the target.
According to George Markopouliotis, the Head of the EC Representation in Cyprus, the Commission has drawn up a list of 137 electricity projects, including 35 that aim on electricity interconnection.
The project standing out for Cyprus is the ambitious sub-sea cable project, the EuroAsia Interconnector, that aspires to connect power grids in from Israel to Cyprus, and onwards to Greece and the rest of Europe.
Such projects may access the 5.85 bln euro fund for the "Connecting Europe" facility and, according to Markopouliotis.
He said that the first round of funding, worth 647 mln euros, includes the leg of the EuroAsia Interconnector project that will link between Hadera in Israel and Vassilikos in southeastern Cyprus. The project has been allocated 1.3 mln euros for a feasibility study, while two more Cypriot projects figure in the list, comprising the electricity interconnection of Cyprus and Crete and a set of gas projects, including the pipeline and the LNG storage facility in Vassilikos.
Markopouliotis said that “Energy Union is a top priority for President Juncker”, adding that energy-related problems can only be effectively dealt with though coordinated action at the European level.
From his part, Constantinos Xichilos, the Acting Director for Energy at the Energy Ministry, presented the Ministry’s preliminary position on Energy Union and said that Nicosia endorsed the European Commission’s vision for a resilient European energy union with a forward looking climate policy.
He said that recent discoveries of hydrocarbon reserves in the EEZ of Cyprus and in the eastern Mediterranean will potentially change the geopolitics and economics of the region, turning the region into a reliable energy supplier for Europe.
As for electricity interconnection, he noted that no interconnections have been developed yet due to various barriers and expressed the government’s support for the EuroAsia Interconnector project.
