EU-backed electricity interconnector project for Cyprus faces delays

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The €1.9 billion Great Sea Interconnector, an EU-backed project intended to link the electricity grids of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, faced repeated delays due to maritime boundary disputes in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey challenged the cable route, which crosses waters where Greece claims sovereign rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, leading to the deployment of Turkish naval vessels that disrupted offshore survey operations in 2024. The European Commission, which designated the project as strategic and committed €657 million, intended the 1,200-kilometre subsea cable to end Cyprus’s status as the only EU member state without a connection to the bloc’s wider electricity grid. Ankara opposes the project, viewing it as a challenge to its maritime claims and a sign of alignment between Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, and has expressed interest in an alternative link between Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Consequences

The ongoing maritime jurisdictional disputes between Turkey and Greece create significant operational risks that threaten to stall the project's construction and complicate regional energy security. If the project remains delayed, Cyprus will continue to face electricity isolation and higher costs while the EU struggles to integrate its wider energy network as planned.

Sources

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