Greek Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis, his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Níkos Anastasiádis signed an agreement for the construction of the EastMed gas pipeline in Athens on Thursday 2 January.
Through this project, the three countries aim to become an important link in Europe's energy supply chain.
According to Mr Mitsotákis, the agreement is also "of geostrategic importance", while the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Mediterranean continues to fuel tensions with Turkey (see EUROPE 12277/7).
However, the Greek Prime Minister said that "this gas pipeline is not a threat to anyone", but "contributes to peace" and cooperation in the region, while pointing out that Italy should join the project soon.
The EastMed project is nearly 2 000 kilometres long and is expected to bring between 9 and 11 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from offshore reserves off Cyprus and Israel to Greece and then to the rest of the European Union.
Agreement on Russian gas via Ukraine. This signature comes a few days after another gas agreement was announced by Kiev and Moscow during the night of 30-31 December concerning the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukrainian territory.
While an "agreement in principle" was reached on 19 December (see EUROPE 12395/10) and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed the next day, this new five-year contract between the Russian gas companies Gazprom and Ukrainian Naftogaz ensures "continuous gas flows to Europe from 1 January 2020", Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission for Inter-Institutional Relations said on Twitter.
Agreed at the last possible moment (the previous agreement expired on 31 December) after long months of difficult discussions (see EUROPE 12376/18, 12358/18), the new contract provides that Gazprom will transit through Ukraine at least 65 billion cubic metres of gas next year and then at least 40 billion per year from 2021 to 2024, explained Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In addition, the Russian company agreed to pay Naftogaz $2.9 billion (fine and interest) in exchange for Naftogaz dropping all other lawsuits against Gazprom in Ukraine and the West. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)