Summit Discusses East Med Pipe

Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and the Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, met in Thessaloniki, Greece, June 15 for the annual trilateral summit and signed a joint statement for the continued strengthening of relations between the countries.

"Looking into the future I would say, we discussed two things," said Netanyahu following the summit. "The first is energy… I mean many types of energy, including the transmission, the production and possibly the transmission of electricity and of course the idea of the East Med pipeline, which would be a revolution. We've had preliminary studies of it. It seems promising and we're going to look further into it, but it would connect our three continents and Italy. It's something we're very excited about."

Although experts see little prospects for East Med pipeline project to be accomplished, particularly in low energy price environment, the three countries were adamant that the project is on. “A few months ago it was in the realm of fantasy," Netanyahu told reporters, according to Bloomberg. “Now it’s becoming real.”

Last April, during a meeting of energy ministers from Israel, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy and an EU representative, in Tel Aviv, Israel, it was stated, that the project is viable and a preliminary date for its operation was set to 2025.

“We agreed to expedite our joint actions concerning our agreement on the construction of a large project which will offer new prospects of economic cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Tsipras, according to the Cyprus Mail.

The East Med pipeline is a planned 2,000-km pipeline, most of it undersea, which will connect gas reserves off Israel and Cyprus with Greece and Italy. In a study concluded last year it was estimated the pipeline cost will be about $6bn. Experts say that it is too low.  

Political rewards

Israel is looking for more than economic benefits from its gas. It hopes to improve relations with European countries. According to a report in Kan. the Israeli broadcaster, Netanyahu also said yesterday, not publicly, that the flow of Israeli gas to Europe will oblige the European countries, if they want to diversify their gas resources by using Israeli gas, to change their hostile attitude towards Israel and treat her more positively.

Ya'acov Zalel