The European Commission has approved a €263m investment in key trans-European energy infrastructure projects, mainly gas infrastructure in the Baltic Sea region, but also to the electricity sector across Europe. In total, nine projects were selected following a call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), an EU funding programme for infrastructure.
The EU will provide €187.5m in grants for the construction of the Balticconnector bi-directional sub-sea gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland, which will end the historical dependence of Finland from a single gas supplier. It will also provide €18.6m to Elering for the enhancement of the Estonia-Latvia interconnection and will grant €125,010 for a study on the integration of the Baltic States' electricity network into the continental European network.
It will also fund energy infrastructure projects in South-Eastern Europe, including €29.9m for the construction of new 400 kV line between Dobrudja and Burgas in Bulgaria (NSI East Electricity project) and €130,000 for preparatory activities for the Chiren gas storage expansion in Bulgaria (NSI East Gas project). As part of the Southern Gas Priority Corridor (SGC) project, the EU will also lend €3.535m to TANAP for the expansion of the South-Caucasus Pipeline (SCP-(F)X) and Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline" (TANAP) project in Turkey and €243,250 for a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for connection of the Greek transmission system with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project.
In North-Western Europe, the EU will provide €14.8m for a study on the Viking Link project, a proposed power interconnection between Revsing (Denmark) and Bicker Fen (UK), and €8.3m for a study on a compressed air energy storage in Larne (UK).