The role of a technical committee proposed by the European Commission last week to supervise technical requirements of the Crete-Athens link so as to ensure the project’s compatibility with the wider Greek-Cypriot-Israeli interconnection should be limited to examining the interconnectivity of technical choices and not offer any powers over the project’s technical requirements as a whole, the Greek energy ministry and prime minister’s office have requested, according to energypress sources.

The Greek government has stepped in to add political weight to a dispute prompted by the maneuvering of Greek power grid operator IPTO and Cyprus’s Euroasia Interconnector consortium for control of the Crete-Athens link.

RAE, the country’s Regulatory Authority for Energy, recently awarded IPTO control of the Crete-Athens link project’s development but the European Commission, which rejected this move, responded by calling for a special committee in a supervisory role.

IPTO has already made clear it cannot accept a situation in which the operator would be expected to invest capital while being subject to the control of others.