Financial Mirror: Conference addresses energy security issues in Cyprus and the EU

The Government aims at turning Cyprus into a regional energy hub, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Neoclis Sylikiotis said on Monday, while referring to actions taken at EU level to secure the bloc’s energy supply and set ambitious targets in the fields of energy and climate change. 

Sylikiotis was addressing a conference, in Nicosia, on “Energy Security in the EU”, organized by the European Parliament Office in Cyprus and Greece and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. 

The Minister said that Cyprus was working towards the goal, set by the EU, to lift the energy isolation of the member states by 2015 and referred to a draft regulation that has been recently adopted by the European Commission, setting out the guidelines on the development of transeuropean energy infrastructure. 

As Sylikiotis said, the draft regulation sets a number of transeuropean energy corridors and priority zones, concerning electricity and gas networks and prioritizes twelve particular infrastructure projects of strategic importance, which need to be completed by 2020. 

Cyprus is included in two of these natural gas corridors and one electricity corridor, along with other member states, the Minister went on. He added that this draft regulation comprises one of the highest priorities of the Cypriot EU Presidency, due in second half of the year.  MORE