DISY praises President on GSI, AKEL presses for exit details

Politics akeldisyeconomyGreat Sea InterconnectorTop News DISY praises President on GSI, AKEL presses for exit details Christodoulides Annita Relevant News Doctors face court today over singer Mazonakis’s death 11 September 2026 DISY praises President on GSI, AKEL presses for exit details 11 September 2026 Autism patients stuck in psychiatric hospital as communities reject homes 11 September 2026 Chrysanthos Manoli 11 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber DISY has spent months criticising the government from the opposition benches. On Thursday, the party issued a written statement striking a different tone, welcoming President Nikos Christodoulides’s clearer comments on Wednesday about the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI). At the same time, DISY called on the President to make sure the Finance and Energy ministers adopt the same position, so the government stops sending conflicting messages to the public. AKEL, meanwhile, sent a fresh set of questions to the Finance Minister, pressing for clarity on the project’s cost and on whether Cyprus has any legal way to walk away from its commitments. DISY welcomes President’s stance, calls for unified government line DISY’s statement also set out the party’s clear backing for turning Cyprus into a “protagonist of the project, rather than remaining in the role of spectator.” The party is understood to be pushing for the Cypriot state to take a stake in GSI’s share capital. That would give Cyprus a more effective, substantive role in the project’s decisions and management. “We view positively yesterday’s clearer position from the President of the Republic on the implementation of the Great Sea Interconnector,” DISY said. “This is the approach and position on the government’s part that we called for from the outset, and which we repeated again on Wednesday, at our press conference.” President Christodoulides had said on Wednesday that, following coordination around August 15 with the French President and the Greek Prime Minister, a new landscape had formed for advancing the project. “After the coordination that took place around August 15 with the French President and the Greek Prime Minister, for the first time since 2012, when this idea began, we are very close to the stage of starting, so that there can be results,” he said. Christodoulides described the entry of French investment company Meridiam as “of decisive importance,” both economically and geopolitically, adding that developments were proceeding on the basis of the coordination and full agreement that exists with the Greek Prime Minister. DISY’s statement also urged the President to secure a single government position on the interconnector. “We expect this clearer position of the President of the Republic to be adopted and expressed uniformly by his entire government,” the party said. “Only a few days ago, before the House Energy Committee, statements by the relevant ministers sent out different and contradictory messages about the progress of the project, keeping the uncertainty and the mixed messaging alive. “We therefore hope there will be no fresh backtracking by the government, and that the contradictory statements that blur the picture around a project of this importance do not return, as unfortunately also happens on AKEL’s part, through its continuous doubts and objections. For DISY, the goal is not who is proven right. It is for a project of strategic and national importance for energy security and Cyprus’s future, and for the benefit of citizens, to move forward with seriousness and evidence. Our country must become a protagonist of the project rather than remain in the role of spectator.” Cable already built as AKEL presses for details AKEL sent the new questionnaire to Finance Minister Makis Keravnos on Thursday, following one sent to him last week by general secretary Stefanos Stefanou. AKEL also sent a separate questionnaire to the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA). The questions make clear that AKEL still regards it as urgent to clarify the project’s basic financial parameters, particularly the scale of the burden on Cypriot consumers. They also give the impression that the party still regards the project’s launch as open to negotiation or review by the Cypriot government. That is despite the fact that a significant part of the cable has already been manufactured. French company Nexans built it at factories in Norway and Japan, and payment is still pending from the project’s implementing body. On paper, that body remains Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), for now. IPTO is also seeking recognition from CERA of several hundred million euros it has already spent on the interconnector, with a view to recovering that money in future. Those claims will shortly be submitted to CERA by GSI’s new owner, French company Meridiam. Meridiam continues working with Nexans and IPTO to find a consortium of French companies for the demanding task ahead: completing seabed surveys between Kasos and Cyprus, of which about 60 per cent has been finished. Greece’s Foreign Minister said on Tuesday that the project would continue on the company’s timeline. Greek media reported that GSI was also discussed when President Macron and Prime Minister Mitsotakis met on Wednesday. In his letter to Keravnos, Stefanou raised new questions for the government on the interconnector, prompted by comments made during the Energy Committee’s session on September 8. He asked for an update on the concerns Keravnos had said were emerging within ECOFIN over the high cost of electricity interconnectors and shifting EU energy priorities. Stefanou also sought further detail on the project’s likely final cost. “Given your statement that the 1.9 billion euros relates mainly to the cable, and that there is still no complete picture of the total cost, is there an upper financial limit beyond which the Republic of Cyprus would consider the project economically unviable?” he asked. Elsewhere in the letter, Stefanou wrote: “You also informed us that, when the Council of Ministers took its decision on the memorandum of understanding between Cyprus and Greece in September 2024 [philenews notes this was in fact a framework agreement], you raised specific concerns and reservations before the Council. What were those concerns, and what conditions had you set?” According to philenews’s information from that period, Keravnos, given his serious reservations about the project, had told President Christodoulides he was ready to facilitate him by resigning, should the President’s position differ from his own. Stefanou also asked whether, if a new European Investment Bank study concludes the project is not economically viable or not in Cyprus’s interest, there is a legal way to avoid paying the 125 million euros set out in the framework agreement with the Greek government, or to end the related commitments. He asked for clarification on the financial consequences of non-payment, and on whether any compensation claims, other contractual obligations or regulatory charges would continue to fall on the state or on Cypriot consumers. 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