Friday 17th December 2021
“Other question” than the Ukraine crisis
Scholz doesn’t put any pressure on Nord Stream 2
Nord Stream 2 as leverage against Russia: That would please some countries and especially the USA. With regard to the gas pipeline’s operating permit, which has not yet been issued, Chancellor Scholz is now positioning himself – and does not want the matter to be mixed up with the conflict in Ukraine.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out against combining the operating license for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with efforts to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine. “With regard to Nord Stream 2, it is a private-sector project,” said the SPD politician after the EU summit in Brussels. For commissioning, compliance with European law has to be clarified in one aspect. “An authority in Germany decides on this quite apolitically,” emphasized the SPD politician. This is “a different question” than the current efforts to prevent a violation of the Ukrainian borders.
The Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany was completed weeks ago. The Federal Network Agency decides on the operating permit. Its president Jochen Homann said on Thursday that a decision on a permit for gas transport would not be decided before mid-2022.
The Federal Network Agency initially suspended a certification process in November. This certification only comes into question if the operating company is organized in a legal form under German law, it said. Nord Stream 2 AG, based in Zug, Switzerland, wants to respond to this by founding a German subsidiary.
The pipeline has long been criticized by the US, but also by some EU countries. They fear that they are too dependent on Russia for energy supplies. At its summit, the EU unanimously threatened Russia with retaliation in the event of an attack on Ukraine. In a joint statement by the heads of state and government, Russia urgently needs to defuse the tensions caused by the deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine and aggressive rhetoric. Any further military aggression would have “massive consequences and high costs”. Again and again there is speculation about a stop of Nord Stream 2 as a possible consequence.