The gas pipeline, whose construction has been completed since last autumn, was not in service anyway due to a legal blockage by the German energy regulator: it does not yet comply with European and German legislation in the sector. .
But the decision announced on Tuesday goes further. The German government has withdrawn a favorable “political” opinion that it had issued so far concerning the gas pipeline and concluding that the project does not pose a national “security” risk. This point will be reconsidered. “Nord Stream II is no longer taboo” in Germany, summarizes the daily Handelsblatt.
The German announcement prompted a mocking reaction from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: “Welcome to a new world, where Europeans will soon pay 2,000 euros for 1,000 m³ of gas”, a potentially colossal sum for Germany , which alone imported 56.3 billion m³ of Russian gas in 2020, i.e. 55% of its gas needs.
The United States welcomes
Strongly opposed to the project from the start, the White House on Tuesday welcomed this suspension and assured that it would announce its “own measures”.
“The President has made it clear that if Russia invades Ukraine, we will act with Germany to ensure that Nord Stream 2 is not put into operation. We have been in close consultation with Germany overnight and welcome their announcement. We will take our own action today,” Jen Psaki, Joe Biden’s spokeswoman, tweeted.
The shutdown of Nord Stream 2 “will free Europe from the Russian geostrategic stranglehold because of its natural gas supply”, assured a senior American official on Tuesday. The suspension of this controversial gas pipeline which connects Russia to Germany is a “major turning point in the energy independence of the world” vis-à-vis Moscow, he estimated.
US Democratic President Joe Biden began his term on a line extremely hostile to Nord Stream 2, in line with his predecessors. But, unexpectedly, the American Administration had announced at the end of May 2021 that it was giving up sanctioning Nord Stream 2 AG, responsible for operating the gas pipeline, removing an essential obstacle to its commissioning.
After several weeks of intense negotiations, the United States, anxious to spare the German ally, announced in the summer of 2021 an agreement with the German government to end their dispute.
“Serious mistake”
Nord Stream 2 is definitely a cursed project, at the heart of geopolitical and economic battles since its conception. For several years, the project opposed the United States and Germany, the main promoter of the project, but also the Europeans between them, as well as Russia and Ukraine.
Nord Stream 2 connects Russia to Germany via a 1,230 kilometer tube under the Baltic Sea with a capacity of 55 billion m³ of gas per year, on the same route as its twin Nord Stream 1, operational since 2012. Bypassing Ukraine, the route is supposed to increase the possibility of delivering Russian gas to Europe at a time when production within the European Union is declining.
Promoted by the Russian giant Gazprom, the project, estimated at more than 10 billion euros, was co-financed by five European groups in the energy sector. Germany is the main promoter of the gas pipeline within the EU, which it believes will help it achieve the energy transition it has embarked on.