So, do we actually know what we’re doing with this cable?

Opinion economyelectricityfranceGreat Sea InterconnectorGreece So, do we actually know what we’re doing with this cable? Paraskeyhs Kalodio Relevant News ‘Pleiades’ documentary revisits Cyprus’s first serial killer case 7 August 2026 None of us is without sin 7 August 2026 So, do we actually know what we’re doing with this cable? 7 August 2026 Aristos Michaelides 7 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Read through some of the projects the French giant Meridiam has delivered, the same company that has now taken charge of the Cyprus–Greece electricity interconnector (the Great Sea Interconnector), and you realise this is serious business. These are on a different scale to anything we do. A few examples, as reported by Chrysanthos Manoli: An undersea electricity interconnector from the United Kingdom to Germany, 725km long, a €2.8 billion investment. One of the largest interconnectors in the world, and it’s currently under construction. The Sud Europe Atlantique high-speed rail line, 302km from Tours to Bordeaux in France. A €7.7 billion project. Desalination and water transfer from Aqaba to Amman in Jordan. The second-largest desalination plant in the world, with 450km of pipelines. Total investment of roughly $6 billion. Sofia Airport in Bulgaria: a 35-year concession for the country’s main international airport, with committed investment of at least €624 million. That’s a taste of it; there’s plenty more where that came from, and once you’re looking at billion-euro investments like these, you understand why our own little world looks so small by comparison. Here, if the state wants to build a road worth 60 or 80 million euros, it takes twenty years of consultations, and then just as long again to actually build the thing. The project Meridiam has now taken on, the GSI, buying 66% from ADMIE, runs to around two billion euros, and there’s no doubt they can deliver it. Especially since they’ve already taken on the thorniest problem of all: the seabed surveys Turkey keeps blocking. In Greece, the government officials who’ve spoken up look thrilled. From Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, right down to the Environment and Energy Minister, Stavros Papastavrou. They’re convinced the project is now getting under way. Here in Cyprus, nobody’s telling us anything. What’s our position? What’s our role? And this whole scheme is supposedly meant to lift Cyprus out of energy isolation, backed and decided by the European Union. We did get a statement from Energy Minister Michalis Damianou, which, frankly, came across as a bit of a “yes, but.” He welcomed the French investment group coming on board, said the move gives “huge new momentum” to getting the project off the ground, but then added that we’ll be waiting on the “due diligence study the European Investment Bank is preparing on the project’s financial dimension.” Government decisions, he said, will rest on the EIB’s findings. If I’m reading that right, this study is what will decide whether Cyprus even goes in as a shareholder. So which is it? Does Cyprus actually back this project or not? Makis Keravnos? What we’re actually waiting to find out, though, is what this is going to cost the Cypriot consumer if it goes ahead. Nobody’s disputing this is a project of geostrategic importance. We’ve grasped that Greece seems unable to get past the Turkish roadblock and push ahead with the seabed surveys between Kasos and Cyprus. And it’s obvious that a bigger opportunity has opened up now with a giant like Meridiam on board, a company that wouldn’t touch this if it had any doubts the thing could actually be built. What nobody’s ever explained, and what they owe us an explanation for, is how on earth these billions are supposed to pay for themselves. How much of that lands on the Cypriot consumer? How much will the electricity bill landing on our doorsteps go up, if it goes up at all, when, and how? Does anyone actually know the answer, or have we signed up to a project that benefits the investors, benefits Athens as it turns into an energy exporter not just to Cyprus but to the Middle East, while the Cypriot consumer has no idea whether, or when, they’ll actually see any benefit on their bill? Fine, we’ll benefit from ending energy isolation. But the other goal, the one about bringing household electricity prices down, is that still on the table, or are we just going to build it and see? 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