Brussels, 01/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 1 December, the European Commission confirmed that it had received the letter sent to its Vice President in charge of the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, by the Ministers for Energy from the seven EU member states in Eastern Europe: Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. This letter warns about the risks of destabilisation in their region and Ukraine, related to the Russian Nord Stream, Nord Stream-2 projects.
Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the Commission spokesperson, indicated on Tuesday that “we are going to examine this letter and provide a response”. She repeated that the Commission's position was “well-known”. Since the announcement of the Nord Stream-2 project at the beginning of September, the Commission has repeated that, as is the case for any new energy infrastructure, it will examine its compliance with EU law.
On Monday, the Polish Minister for the Economy confirmed that the Polish Minister for Energy Krzysztof Tchorzewski and his Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian and Slovakian counterparts had sent a letter on 27 November, to the Vice President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, which highlighted the negative impact of building the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline on the energy security and political situation in the EU and in the countries of the central European region.
In their letter, ministers highlighted their concerns about the geopolitical consequences of this project and the threats that it could pose to the stability of supplies from the Jamal and Braterstwo pipelines to countries of the region, explained the Polish Minister for the Economy.
Ministers also highlighted the unfavourable repercussions of building the Nord Stream-2 on Ukraine and emphasised the fact that this project was in contradiction with the basic energy policy principles of the EU, particularly with regard to the Energy Union project pillars.
These seven member states are calling on Nord Stream-2 to be subject to all the rules contained in the 3rd internal gas market liberalisation package and that the access rule for third parties applies to it.
Given that the construction of Nord Stream-2 could threaten the cohesion of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, ministers are calling for this question to be discussed during the European Council on 17-18 December.
The Russian Gazprom project was signed with five European partners at the beginning of September and includes a shareowners pact to build the Nord Stream-2 project, which seeks to double the capacity of the gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The Nord Stream pipeline has been up and running since 2012 and its capacity will be increased from 55 to 110 billion m³ a year. Gazprom will spearhead this project, in which the German energy companies E.ON and BASF-Wintershall are involved, as well as OMV, from Austria, the Anglo Dutch company, Royal Dutch Shell and the French Engie firm, which each have a 10% stake in it. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry and Jan Kordys)