On the one hand, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos yesterday described the European Investment Bank (EIB) “an important lifeblood of the Cypriot economy” (for 2023 alone, he said, loans of 230 million were disbursed for projects in Cyprus) and on the other hand the Cypriot state puts aside the EIB’s voluminous study on its financial viability electrical interconnection with Greece and Israelwhich, as he repeated yesterday the vice-president of the EIB, Kyriakos Kakouris, was negative for the two billion euro project.
The information of Phileleftheros states, in fact, that the Government is rapidly advancing the procedures for the realization of new specialized studies to verify the economic viability and utility of the electrical interconnection for the countryso as soon as possible to take the final and binding -investment- decision for the state’s participation in the interconnection, which is now being promoted as the implementing body by the Hellenic National Association of Greek Civil Engineers, where control is maintained by the Greek government.
Cooperation with the TAQA fund
The information of “F” states that the Cypriot Government will collaborate on the development of the specialized research with the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) TAQA, which specializes in huge value energy investments in many countries and has the expertise to assess the economic viability of the Cyprus-Greece-Israel interconnection, in addition to the study recently carried out on behalf of the Cypriot Government by the Norwegian DNV, which focused mainly on the geostrategic and geopolitical value of the interconnection.
The investment fund TAQA has already expressed an interest in participating in the share capital of the company Great Sea Interconnector, which was established by ADMIE as a special purpose company, to promote the interconnection (replacing the EuroAsia Interconnector). In order to formalize its interest in participating in the Great Sea Interconnector, the TAQA fund is already promoting the realization of a specialized economic viability study and our information indicates that for the realization of this study there will be official cooperation with the Cypriot Government.
In general, an agreement is being promoted between Cyprus and Abu Dhabi for a close cooperation between them, so that the study to cover the special interests of both parties and to be utilized by both sides, in view of the critical decisions they have to make to participate or not in the Great Sea Interconnector. It is possible that there was a development in the matter this week, during the contacts that the Minister of Energy Giorgos Papanastasiou had in Abu Dhabi.
EIB: Not known to us
Yesterday, a sensation was caused by the answer given by EIB vice-president Kyriakos Kakouris to a question regarding whether or not the bank will grant a low-interest loan to the Republic of Cyprus, for the financing needs of the interconnection.
Mr. Kakouris said that the positioning of the European Investment Bank for the electricity project interconnection of Cyprus – Greece and Israel, Great Sea Interconnector, was negative. In general, this has been known for months, but without – even today – reliable information as to the reasons – techno-economic or other – that the EIB rejected EuroAsia’s old request for a loan of around 600 million euros. Mr. Kakouris also said yesterday that no new project funding request has been submitted by the Republic of Cyprus. “The position of the bank is known. The bank has given its position to both the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance a few months ago. The evaluation of the project at the time was negative, the Government of the Republic undertook to study and I have the impression that it said it would do a new study. I think there has been a new evaluation by the Ministry of Energy and it has been discussed, if I have been informed correctly.”
The vice president of the EIB also said the following: “But we, as a bank, in order to re-examine this project a request must come from the Republic of Cyprus and currently we do not have such a request».
Although until recently information wanted ADMIE to have approached the EIB claiming a low-interest loan for the needs of the interconnection, the information today does not confirm the filing of an official request by the organization.
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