Berlin-Brussels-Sana
The European Union announced its rejection of the US sanctions on the Russian gas pipeline (North Stream 2), while the German government accused Washington of interfering in its internal affairs after the decision to impose sanctions on companies participating in the project that supplies European countries with Russian gas.
"The union opposes in principle the imposition of sanctions on European companies doing legitimate business," Agence France-Presse quoted a European Union spokesman as saying in a statement today.
For her part, Ulrike Demir, a spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said that "her country rejects such sanctions that exceed the American borders," explaining that it "affects German and European companies and constitutes interference in our internal affairs."
In turn, German Deputy Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Schultz described the US sanctions as "an infringement of sovereignty."
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement today that the US sanctions against Russian gas pipelines will not affect Moscow's plans to implement its economic projects and that Europe is the true loser of Washington's punitive policies.
On the 17th of this month, the US Senate approved a bill on the defense budget for the new fiscal year 2020 that obliges the US administration to impose sanctions on the Russian gas project (North Stream 2).
It is noteworthy that the project (North Stream 2) includes the construction of two gas pipelines with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually through the Baltic Sea and territorial waters or exclusive economic areas of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.