The European Union (EU) will invest 500 million euros to strengthen Armenia’s energy security and diversification, the European Commissioner for Enlargement told Armenian media in Brussels, Armenpress reports.

Marta Kos highlighted the 500-million-euro Caucasus Transmission Network project, signed in Uzbekistan, as a key initiative for enhancing energy security and diversification.

“There is the whole connectivity agenda.  When I was in Tashkent we signed the Caucasus Transmission Network project. It is worth 500 million. So this is a project, we in these big projects, especially in the connectivity, we work together with the international financial institutions and this is now the German bank KfW. So, it is a 500 million investment to connect your power grid with the Georgian one and we are already working on the power grid of Armenia and Türkiye. Why? That you get less and less dependent on energy from Russia. And we have experiences. Also we have now special energy plans for Moldova, for Ukraine and also for us. For instance, when the war [in Ukraine] started in 2022, Europe was importing 60% of [natural] gas from Russia, 50% of coal, and I think it was 40% of oil. Now coal is 0, oil is 0, and with the gas we are now slowly down to 0, which is not always easy as you also know,” Commissioner Kos said.

“This is, for instance, one of the projects which is enabling possible through the connectivity agenda.”

The EU Commissioner said that she has requested Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Davit Khudatyan to present a list of priority projects in connectivity. The EU is ready to support the ministry in capacity-building.

The Caucasus Transmission Network Project aims to provide a reliable, flexible and mutually profitable cross-border energy exchange within the South Caucasus by connecting the Armenian and the Georgian power grids.