Brussels, 01/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The German Vice Chancellor and Minister for the Economy, Sigmar Gabriel, provided the Polish government with assurances on Friday 29 January that it “took seriously” Poland's concerns about the joint Russian-German Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project. He reassured Poland that this project was not directed against it and that its objective was “purely economic”.
Following a meeting with the Polish Vice Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, during a visit to Warsaw on Friday, Gabriel informed the press that “We take Poland's concerns very seriously. We informed the Russians that we would not carry out this project without guarantees for security of supply through the Ukraine after 2019, security of supply to Eastern Europe and the effective functioning of the Yamal gas pipeline (which goes through Poland, Ed)”. AFP reported Gabriel as explaining “For Germany, however, this project remains purely economic… We support the diversification of gas supply sources and it is the companies and German market that decide where these come from”.
Morawiecki insisted that Poland considered “Maintaining operational gas transport links as a key factor”. He added “As long as the war in Ukraine continues, we have a problem, given the fact that our biggest economic partner (Germany, Ed) intends to increase Nord Stream transport capacity by building Nord Stream-2. We are concerned about the implications on geopolitical and gas security for Poland and we are continuing to increase our underground gas storage in Katharina”. He warned that Warsaw would “prioritise” the project to extend Katharina (from the current 110 m3 to 600 millions m3 by 2024) in relation to the gas pumped and channelled from Germany to Poland by way of the Mallnow station in east Germany.
Since the announcement in September 2015, of a shareholder agreement between the Russian gas company Gazprom and five west European energy groups (BASF and E.ON from Germany, Engie from France, OMV from Austria and the Anglo-Dutch Shell) to build the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, which aims to double the capacity from Nord Stream (since 2012 this has linked Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, Ed), central and eastern European countries have felt very much on the defensive. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)