The EuroAsia Interconnector project – a subsea electricity cable linking Cyprus with the Greek and Israeli grids – is back on track after strong speculation that it could be scrapped due to financing issues.
This is what Philenews reported on Wednesday, adding that Nicosia has secured all the financing needed to enter a final agreement with the Norwegian company Nexans who will build the cables.
Nexans – and an annoyed European Commission which is the main financial backer – had warned that they would turn their attention to other projects since the EuroAsia Interconnector’s implementation process was unacceptably slow.
Philenews also reports that official announcements on the positive developments will be made later on Wednesday. And that the project is now believed to be fully executed by end of December 2029.
The EU had warned Cyprus it would revoke the 2016 decision of the European Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to fund the project with €657 million if prompt action was not taken.
The Ministers of Finance and Energy, Makis Kerynos and George Papanastasiou, respectively, on Sunday had a long meeting focusing on how to rescue the project.
The EuroAsia Interconnector is a European project of common interest labelled as an EU ‘electricity highway’ connecting the national electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus and Greece through a 1,208 km subsea HVDC cable, considered to be the longest in the world.