Brussels, 02/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - The transmission system operators (TSO) RTE (France) and National Grid (UK) agreed on Tuesday 1 July 2008 to jointly invest nearly €70 million in the IFA2000 electricity interconnection between France and the United Kingdom. The money will be used to replace conversion equipment dating back to 1986, the year when the IFA2000 came into operation. Its capacity of 2000 megawatts is used by both operators. The investment has two aims - increasing the reliability of the existing electricity interconnection in order to improve long-term availability in line with the development of the EU internal electricity market to boost the safety of the electrical systems, and to ensure smoother trade in electricity between the United Kingdom and the rest of the EU. (E.H./transl.fl)