A gas pipeline connecting Malta to Sicily has been accepted by the European Commission as a priority project and will benefit from EU funding, it was announced yesterday.

The project was listed as one of common interest for the EU in a report presented in Brussels on the state of the so-called Energy Union, through which the EU is endeavouring to cut emissions and ensure energy supply to member states.

The pipeline is one of 195 projects listed by the EU as means to help it achieve its targets. The list includes 108 electricity, 77 gas, seven oil and three smart grid projects.

Projects of common interest, such as Malta’s gas pipeline, are key energy infrastructure initiatives aimed at helping member states integrate their energy markets, enable them to diversify their energy sources and act as a solution to stop energy isolation. They will enable the gradual build-up of the Energy Union.

Projects will benefit from accelerated permitting procedures and improved regulatory conditions and could have access to financial support from a €5.35 billion budget. The announcement came as an engineering company specialising in gas pipelines continues with studies on the design of a gas pipeline between Delimara and Gela, in Sicily.

The news was welcomed by the Energy Ministry which, in a statement, noted that, earlier this year, Malta was awarded €400,000 in EU funds to do further studies on the gas pipeline. The research would be followed by environmental impact assessments and other studies, expected to take 18 months to complete, the ministry said.

The EU also published fact sheets on all member states, including Malta, examining the energy sectors in view of the targets set out in the Energy Union.

Brussels highlighted Malta’s high dependence on fuels for the production of electricity. It said the energy mix in Malta differed from that in the EU 28 due to almost exclusive use of petroleum products. It noted that the country had focused its efforts on reforming the energy sector to diversify the energy mix with measures that were expected to end dependency on oil through a gas pipeline.

The EU also noted that while real unit energy costs were lower than the EU average, industrial consumers in Malta were paying among the highest rates for electricity in the EU.