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Egypt Studies Plan to Export Green Electricity to ‘Europe’

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly meets with officials of the Belgian company “Jan De Nul” for building and maintaining marine infrastructure. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly meets with officials of the Belgian company “Jan De Nul” for building and maintaining marine infrastructure. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Egypt Studies Plan to Export Green Electricity to ‘Europe’

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly meets with officials of the Belgian company “Jan De Nul” for building and maintaining marine infrastructure. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly meets with officials of the Belgian company “Jan De Nul” for building and maintaining marine infrastructure. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Egyptian government on Tuesday approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and Belgian builder Jan De Nul to begin studies on a project to export electricity from renewable energy from Egypt to Europe via a Mediterranean Sea line.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly termed the project as “strategic” to Egypt and Europe, noting that Egypt plans to extend marine electricity transmission lines to several European countries.

This came during his meeting with De Nul Jean-Peter Joseph, the CEO of Jan De Nul company that specializes in building and maintenance of marine infrastructure, and Wim Dhont, Manager Offshore Cables at Jan De Nul Group.

The meeting was also attended by Egyptian Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker and Ambassador of Egypt to Belgium and the EU Ambassador Badr Abdel Ati.

It was held on the sidelines of the Global Gateway Forum organized by the European Commission on 25 and 26 October.

Madbouly noted that many international firms are interested in investing in marine cable projects, adding that Egypt can export electricity to Europe but this is hinged on the implementation of the electrical interconnection network with the continent.

The minister added that the climate challenges are accelerating, and this requires increasing investments in renewable energy.

For his part, the CEO of the company showcased the company’s work mechanism, how to lay cables in the deep sea, and the company’s previous work in this domain.

Moreover, he expressed the company’s readiness to cooperate with Egypt in similar projects for electrical interconnection between Egypt and European countries wishing to obtain electricity from Egypt.

The CEO stressed that North Africa is expected to be a prime source in exporting electricity generated from renewable energy to Europe given its high potential in this field.

He went on to say that renewable energy is “the future”.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet announced that the first phase of the Belgian company Demi's project to produce green hydrogen in the port of Jargoub in Egypt will cost about $3 billion.

It added in a statement that Demi CEO Luc Vandenloeck said during his meeting with the Egyptian PM that the company is interested in expanding green hydrogen projects in Egypt.

The statement added that the project will be implemented in three phases

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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.