Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry George Papanastasiou participated in the European Union Energy Council meeting, which took place on Tuesday in Luxembourg, during which the future of European competitiveness and the energy mix were discussed, among other issues.

According to a Ministry press release, the first topic of discussion was the role of the energy sector with regard to the future of European competitiveness, following the report of the same name by Mario Draghi, with Papanastasiou expressing in his intervention his agreement with the main messages of the report in the energy sector, as regards the need for lower energy costs, affordable prices and stability, noting that this will benefit both the competitiveness of the EU and households.

The Minister highlighted in particular the importance for the EU to move forward with the creation of electricity interconnectors and infrastructure to provide flexibility, adding the need to standardise methodologies for setting electricity transmission network charges and to facilitate the authorisation procedures for infrastructure providing flexibility, the press release says.

It is added that the Energy Minister also noted the importance of strengthening the infrastructure for importing gas and exploiting gas deposits within the EU and agreed on the improvement of the investment environment in order to attract private investment in the energy sector through the use of energy market mechanisms such as power purchase agreements.

It is further noted that during the discussion on "The divergence of wholesale electricity prices", Papanastasiou expressed Cyprus' solidarity with Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, which raised the issue of the wide divergence in electricity prices between neighbouring Member States and the high prices observed last summer, and agreed on the need to discuss possible ways to address and mitigate the high windfall profits.

Furthermore, it is stated that the Council discussed the EU's preparation for the upcoming winter, the energy situation in Ukraine and the implementation of the REPowerEU project, with the Minister expressing Cyprus' solidarity with Ukraine and its citizens, while also highlighting the role of the REPowerEU project in helping to accelerate the EU's transition towards an energy mix that ensures its energy self-sufficiency, and its climate neutrality targets by 2050.

Finally, according to the Ministry, Papanastasiou presented the MED9 Joint Declaration on "Transforming the Mediterranean Region into a Green Energy Corridor", which was signed on 23 September 2024 at the Ministerial Meeting on Energy of the nine EU Mediterranean countries.

The Minister referred to the next steps aimed at turning the Mediterranean into a hub for green energy production to be channelled to the EU and beyond, while in a supporting intervention, Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson highlighted the importance of the Mediterranean for the European green transition, the statement concludes.