Two teams of Greek energy ministry and European Commission Directorate-General for Energy technocrats have reached an impasse in negotiations held to resolve a dispute concerning control of the Crete-Athens grid link, planned as a segment of the wider Greek, Cypriot and Israeli interconnection.

The failure of the two teams to reach an agreement, needed to prevent a looming energy sufficiency threat on Crete as of 2020, will now elevate the negotiations to a higher political level for direct talks between Greece’s energy minister Giorgos Stathakis and European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete.

Earlier this week, Canete made clear Greece will not be granted any further deadline extensions beyond December 31, 2019 for diesel-fueled power stations operating on Crete.

Commenting yesterday, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, Director at the European Commission’s Directorate B on the Internal Energy Market, declared all negotiating efforts at the current level of talks have now been exhausted.

Greek power grid operator IPTO and Euroasia Interconnector, a consortium of Cypriot interests heading the Greek, Cypriot and Israeli PCI-status interconnection project, have fought for control of the Crete-Athens segment.

The European Commission this week declared that Euroasia Interconnector, the project promoter of the wider Greek, Cypriot and Israeli link, also remains in charge of the Crete-Athens segment. RAE, Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy, has placed an SPV named Ariadne, an IPTO subsidiary, at this segment’s helm.