Filenews 11 April 2025
The Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry, George Papanastasiou, is optimistic that the Greece-Cyprus-Israel subsea electricity interconnection project (GSI) will proceed normally, noting that there is strong investment interest from major players.
Speaking on Thursday at the Delphi Forum, Papanastasiou stressed, according to a press release, that this project will remove the isolation of Cyprus and that it is not a project between two or three countries but "a European project in which the EU has invested significantly as a project of Common European Interest that has received funding of €657 million from the Connecting Europe Facility".
He also called for more active support from the European Union for the project, while he said that there is strong investment interest from major players. "I am optimistic that diplomacy and logic will prevail. We want stronger European participation, both with statements and with action," he concluded.
At the same time, Mr. Papanastasiou underlined the importance of the interest of American companies in the Eastern Mediterranean region, especially in a period of increased geopolitical and economic turbulence. Commenting on the geopolitical side of energy projects in the region, he stressed that there are three ways to deal with geopolitical challenges: through diplomacy, through the involvement of economic interests by countries with a focus on balancing and finally, through "undesirable", as he said, military action.
The Minister of Energy made special mention of the important cooperation agreements between the Mediterranean countries, citing Egypt as an example, while he confirmed the strong interest of American companies to operate in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Specifically for Chevron, he noted that there was a high-level meeting with the CEO of the company operating in Israel, Egypt and Cyprus and that he also expressed interest in Greece.
For his part, the Greek Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, described the Greece-Cyprus-Israel subsea electricity interconnection project as "critical" for the lifting of Cyprus' energy isolation, while he expressed optimism about its course.
He stressed, however, that careful and institutional management is required by the two countries and the EU. Referring to Chevron's interest in hydrocarbon exploration in the country, he noted that it is a "huge vote of confidence" and an important change due to the geopolitical dimension involved. He stressed, however, that the State must make the necessary moves to complete the whole process before the end of this year.
In this context, he said that, "the first ministerial decision was signed last Friday, the next one is signed tomorrow and by the end of April I think we will publish the tender in the Journal of the European Commission, with the aim of having the completion of the tender by August and then before the end of the year to go to the Hellenic Parliament".
Bulgarian Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov stressed that "when we are alone we cannot achieve results. We must join forces. Interconnectivity with neighbours is an important factor, as is capacity increase." In this context, he stressed the need to focus on new terminals and increase capacity in the coming years, while describing the country's supply of LNG through Alexandroupolis by Venture Capital as a result of "high level diplomacy".
