Brussels Begins New PCI Consultation

The European Commission opened a public consultation March 27 on the energy infrastructure projects that have been submitted to it as potential Projects of Common Interest (PCIs).

To receive PCI status, a project must be considered essential for completing the EU's internal energy market and for reaching the EU's energy policy objectives of affordable, secure and sustainable energy. The consultation will run until June 19.

The current list of PCIs, as published in the EU's Official Journal of January 27 2016, can be viewed here.  

Since then, various grants have been approved, including €444mn in mid-February 2017. The latter included a €101.4mn grant to the Krk LNG import project in Croatia, on which a final investment decision by national authorities is still pending and which Croatia hopes to start operating in 2019, and a €107.7mn grant to the planned Poland-Slovakia gas interconnector pipe. 

The commission said that further recent information on gas PCIs can be accessed on the ENTSO-G website.

The EU's funding of PCIs, through its 'Connecting Europe Facility', is up to 50% and in exceptional circumstances as high as 75% of the capital cost.

Mark Smedley