The European Union (EU) Member States have agreed on the EU Commission's proposal to invest €873m to support several key infrastructure projects across the EU countries. These 17 projects have been selected under the framework of the European support programme for trans-European infrastructure Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). Eight of them are related to the electricity sector with a total support of €680m, while 9 of them are in the gas sector (€193m of European support). Four of them relate to construction works and 13 of them are studies.
The selected power projects include in particular the Biscay Gulf France-Spain interconnection, a new 280-km long offshore interconnection line that will nearly double the interconnection capacity between both countries, from 2,800 MW to 5,000 MW; the project will receive the largest investment support, a €578m grant. The European Union will also support the SuedOstLink in Germany, a 580-km long underground power line, which will link the wind power production centres in the North of the countries with the South. The EU has allocated €70m to this project. €27m will be allocated to the 400-kV Cernavoda-Stalpu line in Romania.
In the gas sector, the EU will offer €101m to support the CyprusGas2EU project, which aims at ending the current energy isolation of the island, and €3.7m to the Malta-Italy Gas Interconnection project.