The suspension of certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is directly related to politics, Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union (EU), said on the Russia 24 TV channel.
“This is, of course, politics. There, apart from politics, there is nothing else. It is another matter that there is a mixture of foreign policy, I would say an all-Western and an internal German one, connected with a change of government in this country, “he said (quoted by TASS).
Earlier today, the head of the German Federal Grid Agency, Jochen Hohmann, said that Nord Stream 2 would not receive EU approval in the first half of 2022 due to the length of the procedure. The certification will continue when the relevant documents are presented to the department, he said.
The construction of Nord Stream 2 was completed on September 10 this year. To launch it, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 AG project must obtain permission from the German and European regulators. However, on November 16, the German Federal Network Agency announced the suspension of the process. The regulator said that the Swiss company Nord Stream 2 AG, owned by Gazprom, can be certified as an independent gas transport operator only after it is organized in a legal form in accordance with German law. On December 16, the press service of the operator announced the work on the establishment of a German subsidiary.
Nord Stream 2 has a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. m of gas per year and passes from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, bypassing the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine. The latter, along with the United States, actively oppose the gas pipeline, calling it a “political” project. Russia, on the other hand, has repeatedly spoken about its commercial nature.
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