The Cyprus energy regulatory authority (Cera) did receive a letter from Greece’s independent transmission system operator (Admie) about the Great Sea Interconnector, its office director Panayiotis Keliris said on Monday.

“We confirm that a letter was sent and an objection was submitted, as provided for in the legislation. Someone can submit an objection and request a review of a Cera decision. We have this objection before us, which we are examining,” he told the Cyprus News Agency.

He confirmed that the objection concerns Cera’s decision 280/25, made on July 31, wherein it verified that Admie had made investments totalling €82 million in the project and as such greenlit the payment of €25m which Admie had demanded from Cyprus.

Keliris said Cera is “studying the text in its hands” and that it will soon offer a response of its own.

His comments come after newspaper Phileleftheros reported on Sundaynthat Admie had requested that the decision be overturned, saying it had in fact invested €251m, rather than the €82m verified by Cera.

It reported that Admie wished for a new decision to be made, approving all the investments it has made thus far, before adding that “Admie is attempting to overturn the framework agreement” signed last year which stipulates that Cyprus will pay Admie €25m per year for five years until the interconnector project is complete.

“Admie considers … the regulatory practice chosen by Cera … namely to pay it only a small percentage of its total costs and collect the rest after the interconnector is operational to be incorrect or even illegal,” the newspaper claimed.

Admie had “categorically” denied the reports on Sunday, saying that it had only sent the letter to object to Cera’s verification of only €82m worth of expenses incurred thus far – a figure much lower than the €251m it says it has made.

President Nikos Christodoulides had responded to the letter later on Sunday, saying that Cyprus “will not be blackmailed by any head of Admie”.

Despite Cera’s greenlighting of the €25m payment, the Cypriot government has thus far withheld it, citing a lack of tangible progress on the project and differences in opinion regarding how the money should be sourced.

To this end, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou had said last month that Cyprus will pay the first €25m instalment when the project is being “implemented in its entirety”, and that the construction of cables alone is “not enough” to meet this criterion.

Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, meanwhile, had said of the former matter that his stance would change “if the project were being implemented right now and were at a good stage”.