Greece's burgeoning arms program is designed to counter Turkish rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, against which France is among the few EU states to have offered public support in past months. Greece has often been embroiled in tensions with neighboring Turkey over a range of issues, from competing claims over hydrocarbon resources in the Aegean Sea to the demilitarization of islands. Turkey’s view, however, is that any project that aims to sideline the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in the Eastern Mediterranean will be unsuccessful. Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said last week that studies on the pipeline’s feasibility were still ongoing, but other alternatives are open to get gas to markets.Įarlier, the United States voiced its concerns over the planned subsea pipeline to provide natural gas from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe in an apparent U-turn from the previous Trump administration's position. Support for the so-called East Med pipeline project has waned amid questions over its feasibility as well as its adverse impact on the environment. The move toward an electricity cable link appears to have supplanted plans for a potential pipeline connection between the three countries to send gas from existing and potential deposits off the island of Cyprus and Egypt to Europe through Greece. President Nicos Anastasiades, President El-Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in their joint declaration four months ago that they are committed in enhancing cooperation in the area of energy and welcomed the EuroAfrica Interconnector project.Turkey had previously sent a diplomatic note to the Greek and Israeli embassies in Ankara and the EU Turkey delegation directorates because the EU-supported project, which was established with a memorandum of understanding signed between Israel, Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration in March last year, passes through Turkey's continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean, between the islands of Cyprus and Crete. The project enjoys support from the governments of the three countries involved, according to the statement. “We are in the tenders stage,” he explained, adding that the first stage that will link Crete with mainland Greece is scheduled to be completed by 2020 while the other two stages, linking Cyprus to Crete and Israel, are expected to be completed the following year. The Greece-Cyprus-Israel project is expected to enter the construction phase this year, instead of 2017, as was the initial plan, Ktorides said in a telephone interview. The EuroAfrica Interconnector project is parallel to a similar one dubbed the EuroAsia Interconnector, linking Israel with Greece through Cyprus via an underwater cable in which Ktorides is also involved. “The 2,000 MW cable will be connected from Egypt to continental Europe via Cyprus, transforming Egypt to an energy hub for Africa and electricity carrier for the European continent,” the EuroAfrica Interconnector said. The Cyprus Business Mail understands that the agreement on the route and the implementation was reached last week. The chairman and chief executive of the company, Nasos Ktorides, and Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker agreed at a recent meeting in addition to the route of the cable also the timeframe of the project’s implementation, EuroAsia Interconnector said. “The Egyptian government (is) giving its full support to EuroAfrica Interconnector, transforming Egypt as an electricity hub for Africa and agreed the electricity cable route, the landing point and the site of the HVDC (high-voltage, direct current) converter station”. The cable, named after the company, “will connect the electricity grids of Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece with Europe has entered the pre-works phase,” the firm said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. Cyprus and Egypt have agreed on the route of a 1,707-kilometre sub-sea power cable that will link the grids of the two countries to that of Greece, EuroAfrica Interconnector, the company behind the project said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |