The European Commission announced the approval of the application submitted by the Implementing Agency of the Project of Common Interest ‘EuroAsia Interconnector’,  the electricity interconnection between Cyprus, Israel and Greece, to receive a grant under the Connecting Europe Facility.

Specifically, the Implementing Agency had applied for an amount of €687 million for construction works on the Cyprus – Crete section, and the approval received by the European Commission concerns almost the entirety of this amount and amounts to approximately €657 million.

This sponsorship is  a result of the hard work and cooperation of the  Implementing Agency with the Ministry of Energy, as well as with other involved Ministries and Services, and  is the most important step for the implementation of the  project. And to ensure it, it is possible to  start construction works for the Cyprus – Crete strand, whose total cost is estimated at  €1.575 billion.

It is worth noting that the amount of sponsorship for which the  EuroAsia Interconnector was approved is the  largest that  has been guaranteed historically for a project of the Republic of Cyprus, while it is also the lion’s share of the budget of the Connecting Europe Facility for this call for applications electricity interconnection projects, which  for 2021 totaled €785 million.

With the approval  for the provision of sponsorship, a short process of negotiations between the Implementing Agency and the European Commission begins, which is expected to lead to the signing of the Sponsorship Agreement between the two parties in the summer of  2022.

This project is also the cornerstone of Cyprus efforts for the transition to a green economy, fully aligned with the policies to be implemented for the protection of the environment.