In March of this year, the three Ministers of Energy of Cyprus, Israel and Greece signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in relation to the EU’s 1,208 km EuroAsia Interconnector Project.
This project which is a major component of plans to end the energy isolation of Cyprus aims to connect the Mediterranean island to the European continental network via Crete and Israel.
Cyprus is after all the last non-interconnected EU member state.
The Interconnector Project was greeted as a milestone by Cyprus’s Minister of Energy, Natasa Pilides, who also described it as a decisive step towards ending the island’s dependence on fossil fuels.
EU wide support for the Project was then copper fastened in July when The Council of Europe approved the allocation of a €100 million grant as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
For Minister Pilides, the Interconnector would remove a significant hindrance to the overall economic development of the island while ensuring security of supply, more competitive wholesale electricity prices and the increased use of electricity from cleaner sources, in particular renewables.
This is important because while Cyprus has a relatively small population of just over 1.2million, it is estimated that the poverty levels continue to hover at or above the 14% mark.
It turns out however that this plan, which will bring down energy bills for the poor of Cyprus and transition the state away from fossil fuels, is being opposed by Sinn Féin.
Why?
Apparently, the big problem for Sinn Féin is that in their view the construction of the Euro-Asia interconnector will allegedly serve the purpose of “entrenching the EU in the complicity of Israel’s campaign of annexation of Palestinian territories.”
This was made clear when Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow, John Brady, challenged Minister Simon Coveney on the matter using talking points that were more or less directly lifted from an analysis of the Project that was promoted by Al-Haq, the Palestinian NGO recently listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel.
Deputy Brady’s assertions were, however, flatly rejected by Minister Coveney; a man no one could describe as a great defender or champion of Israeli government policy, be it on energy or anything else.
Indeed, if this plan had even the faintest whiff of ‘anti-Palestinian’ odour about it, then no better, or more willing man would there be than Simon Coveney to begin leaping all over it.
No. For Minister Coveney, the Sinn Féin TD was simply “trying to turn it into an Israeli issue” when it was absolutely clear to him, and indeed the EU, that “the involvement of Israel in this electricity interconnection project does not have any direct implications for the occupied Palestinian territory since Israel does not use any resources from the occupied Palestinian territory for electricity generation.”
And let’s be clear, to claim that the EU has suddenly adopted an actively pro-Israel policy is more than ridiculous when you consider that the EU-Israel Association Council, the formal body charged with ensuring regular dialogues and identifying areas of cooperation did not meet a single time from 2012 to 2020.
Now, while Minister Coveney did accept that the Palestinian Authority have recently laid a legal claim to parts of the area potentially impacted by the Interconnector-he also stressed that at this point that is all it remains, i.e., one more contested and disputed legal claim that has yet to be adjudicated on.
The problem with the position being adopted on this issue by Sinn Féin does not relate to any lack of consistency on the Palestinian question.
It does raise questions however on the consistency of the Party’s environmental messaging; especially when that messaging claims that the nations of the globe ought to be collectively engaged in a race against the clock to avoid catastrophic climate outcomes.
After all, is Sinn Féin really now suggesting that the EU abandon one of its largest ever environmental projects to drive forward growth in the use of renewables and lift states from energy isolation and insecurity until the resolution of yet another highly contested legal dispute initiated by the Palestinian Authority?
That certainly seems to be the inescapable conclusion here.
Does Sinn Féin really believe that the planet has another 50 years to hang on while waiting for this to happen (which seems par for the course on these matters)?
Must the poor of Cyprus and Greece for that matter be subjected to decades of further dependency on fossil fuels in an energy isolated market while the question is kicked from international pillar to international post?
Or is it more likely the case that Sinn Féin will simply say whatever it needs to say on any given day regardless of how contradictory, evidence free, and absurd it sounds?
As Sinn Féin continue to portray themselves as greener than the Greens, it might be well for the other parties in Dáil Éireann to call them out on this.