The European Commission has raised objections to last week’s RAE (Regulatory Authority for Energy) decision awarding power grid operator IPTO financing and development control of Crete’s urgently needed major-scale electricity grid interconnection with Athens.

Just days ago, IPTO established a special purpose vehicle (SPV) named Ariadne for the project.

Brussels, in an email forwarded to all parties involved, noted that RAE cannot award Crete’s major-scale link with Athens to any party until the end of the year, the time period given to Euroasia Interconnector – a consortium of Cypriot interests responsible for a wider PCI-status project planned to link the Greek, Cypriot and Israeli power grids – to decide if it will utilize a right offered for a 39 percent stake, or less, in the venture to develop the Crete-Athens link.

The European Commission’s move essentially comes as a warning suggesting the Crete-Athens link will be regarded as a national Greek project rather than a PCI-status European project if RAE’s decision to award IPTO the project remains valid.

The Euroasia Interconnector consortium wants to avoid legal action but cannot exclude such an outcome, sources informed.