The energy ministry appears to have decided to develop the Crete-Athens electricity grid interconnection as a national project with EU cohesion policy funding through the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014 to 2020, despite intensifying European Commission pressure for this project to be headed by Euroasia Interconnector, a consortium of Cypriot interests heading a wider Greek, Cypriot and Israeli PCI-status interconnection project.
Brussels has stepped up its pressure on Greece with a new letter to RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, from Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, Director at the European Commission’s Directorate B on the Internal Energy Market. It was received by the authority last Thursday.
Athens and Brussels have been at odds over the Crete-Athens link ever since RAE appointed an SPV named Ariadne, a Greek power grid operator IPTO subsidiary, as the project segment’s promoter.
Greek officials are believed to also be considering applying for the Crete-Athens link’s inclusion in a new PCI list to be published by the EU, possibly along with the Crete-Cyprus segment, as part of a new firm, if Nicosia agrees.
