Responding to concerns of the European Parliament’s energy committee, and Denmark and Sweden at the Council of the EU, Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete assured European energy ministers at their meeting in Brussels on Monday 27 February that the EU did not supported Russia’s plan to double the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the Commission would ensure the highly controversial project fully respects all aspects of EU law.
The Commissioner said at a press conference after the meeting that the European Commission was fully committed to respect of the EU’s big energy objectives, including energy security. He said the Commission’s priority was to have a competitive, diversified gas market and in this regard, it is not necessary to wager on a project of the magnitude of Nord Stream 2. He added that the Commission would continue to support the transit through Ukraine of gas from Russia.
The Commissioner said he had pointed out that Nord Stream 2 does not match the EU’s objectives because it would not give the EU access to new sources of supply and would allow Gazprom to boost its position on the European gas market and also in Germany. The Commissioner said he would prefer gas pipelines that unite rather than divide.
He said Nord Stream-2 must fully comply with EU law and its strict rules governing the internal energy market, the rules in the third package of liberalisation, competition rules and environmental protection rules. He added that the project clearly cannot be developed in a legal vacuum and be subject solely to Russian legislation.
Cañete promised to ensure the Nord Stream 2 meets key principles such as transparency, setting non-discriminatory tariffs and compulsory unbundling of supply and network activities by energy operators, explaining that he had sent a letter to the German federal grid agency, Bundesnetzagentur, asking it to ensure these principles are respected and to jointly examine how to establish the necessary legal framework to ensure the Nord Stream 2 project respects these principles.
In a letter to the Maltese Presidency of the Council before the meeting of energy ministers, the chair of the European Parliament’s energy committee, Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland), said the Nord Stream 2 project contradicted the EU’s need for diversification, exposing and deepening the vulnerability of a number of member states and undermining the energy security of the EU as a whole.
Buzek called on the Maltese Presidency to join the EU’s demands that the Commission carry out in-depth evaluations of the applicability of EU law to Nord Stream 2 and the latter’s compliance with EU law and the fundamental principles of Energy Union, along with its impact on the energy security of member states in Central and Eastern European regions and the EU as a whole. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)