The Nord Stream 2 soap opera continues. Two months after the end of the construction of this controversial gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, the German Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) announced Tuesday, November 16, that it was suspending its certification procedure. Its green light, which is essential, is one of the final stages before the commissioning of this new pipeline, which must transport 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe annually.
In the press release justifying its decision, the German agency indicates that a “Certification of the operator of Nord Stream 2 is only possible if it is organized in a legal form under German law”. While the operator, based in Zug (Switzerland), has undertaken to create a company incorporated under German law in order to operate the section of the gas pipeline located in Germany, the “Transfer of essential assets and human resources” from the Swiss company to its German subsidiary, it is still in progress. It’s only when he will be “Completed” that the certification procedure, which must take place within four months, can resume, while filling has already started on the Russian side.
If its basis is legal, the decision announced on Tuesday still has strong political implications because it comes at a time when the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals (FDP) are in the process of finalizing the “contract of coalition ”of the next German government, to be invested in the week of December 6, under the leadership of future Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
However, environmentalists have always been opposed, from the start, to Nord Stream 2. Unsurprisingly, they welcomed this suspension. “The agency bases its decisions on law and legislation, which is very good”said the vice-chairman of the Greens in the Bundestag, Oliver Krischer, for whom this decision is proof that “Gazprom [le géant russe des hydrocarbures, maître d’œuvre du projet] does not take German and European legislation seriously ”.
Suspicion of blackmail at prices orchestrated by Moscow
After having cleared the obstacle of the veto of the United States this summer, Nord Stream 2 therefore comes up against a new obstacle in a context of strong tensions at the Belarusian and Ukrainian borders and after a surge in gas prices no less conflictual. In this regard, the Kremlin and Gazprom have certainly played a calming effect, with their hands on the tap, President Vladimir Putin having asked, on October 27, the gas giant to finally increase deliveries to the European Union (EU) for fill the tanks “In order to create a more favorable situation”.
You have 58.37% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.