Nord Stream may be slowed down to please Ukraine
The Council of the European Union has amended the EU gas directive, which introduces additional bureaucratic approval procedures and may delay the launch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Kommersant newspaper reports today.
This will give additional trump cards to Ukraine, which, realizing that Russia does not have time to put into operation alternative routes, is demanding that Moscow conclude a new transit agreement for 10 years on terms favorable to Kyiv.
Another risk is that the innovations give Germany, and not Brussels, the right to make key decisions in the EU on Nord Stream 2. Consequently, Berlin has additional leverage to influence Moscow in order to maintain transit through Ukraine, where the ruling anti-Russian regime is supported by the West.
The amendments mentioned above have not yet been finalized. If this is not done before the May elections to the European Parliament, “then they are unlikely to be accepted this year, and Gazprom plans to complete the construction of Nord Stream 2 in the fourth quarter,” the newspaper points out.
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