Controversial pipeline: traffic light comments on the future of Nord Stream 2

Created: 02/23/2022, 16:24

By: Sven Hauberg

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will not be put into operation for the time being.

© Tobias Schwarz/AFP

It is now clear: Nord Stream 2 will not be put into operation for the time being.

What will become of the multi-billion dollar pipeline project?

Berlin - For a long time, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had only vaguely commented on the future of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline in the event of further Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Then on Tuesday (February 22) the bang*: After the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would recognize the eastern Ukrainian separatist areas as independent*, the federal government put the project on hold.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens*) said that the approval of the pipeline had been stopped for the time being.

"The geopolitical situation makes a reassessment of Nord Stream 2 absolutely necessary." Scholz also spoke of a fundamentally different situation that made the step necessary.

Nord Stream 2: Traffic light stops project for the time being

According to the federal government, it could be at least months before a possible final decision on the future of the German-Russian Baltic Sea pipeline is made.

A prerequisite for this would be a report on the impact of the project on security of supply.

When asked whether it would take weeks, months or years to create it, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Wednesday: "I'm not counting on weeks."

The traffic light coalition* of SPD, Greens and FDP had withdrawn a report by the previous government on the effects of the natural gas project on the security of energy supply on Tuesday and thus initially stopped the project.

More than half of the gas consumed in Germany currently comes from Russia*, almost a third from Norway*.

Nord Stream 2: The energy company involved is not planning any legal action

According to the Federal Government, the provisional end does not result in any claims for recourse by the operator consortium.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics pointed out in Berlin on Wednesday that the certification process for the gas pipeline had not yet been completed.

In this context, the government had only “taken one procedural step”.

The energy company Uniper, which is involved in the gas pipeline, has meanwhile said that it is not planning any legal action against the approval process, which has been suspended for the time being.

"We are currently not dealing with any questions as to whether this could trigger legal consequences," said CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach to journalists on Wednesday when the business figures were published.

If someone complains, it should be the operating company, said the head of the company, which is majority owned by the Finnish Fortum Group.

Uniper is involved with around 950 million euros in financing the Baltic Sea gas pipeline*, which costs around ten billion euros.

Nord Stream 2: Climate Foundation Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania no longer wants to support the project

The climate foundation Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, co-financed by Nord Stream 2 AG, no longer wants to support the gas pipeline*.

After the federal government stopped certifying the pipeline, the board decided that no further efforts would be made by the foundation to help with the work that was still to be done, said the chairman and former Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Erwin Sellering (SPD*) , on Wednesday the news agency dpa.

The board of directors of the foundation agreed "that we now have to take this development into account and that we as a foundation are no longer bound by the mandate that the state parliament gave us at the time and expressly stipulated in the statutes that despite the US sanctions want to help complete the pipeline,” Sellering said.

Nord Stream 2 AG has provided the Climate Foundation with a total of 20 million euros, which the Board of Directors alone decides how to use.

The foundation will continue to carry out its core task of anchoring climate protection as an issue of vital importance to society.

Nord Stream 2: European politician Manfred Weber welcomes gas pipeline

The German environmental aid, on the other hand, demanded the dissolution of the climate foundation.

The environmental organization announced on Wednesday in Berlin that it was a fake foundation.

"The MV Climate and Environmental Protection Foundation was never about climate protection, but about supporting the completion of the Nord Stream 2 fossil gas pipeline," said Federal Managing Director Sascha Müller-Kraenner. 

The German European politician Manfred Weber welcomed the temporary halt to the approval process for Nord Stream 2 on Wednesday.

“I am absolutely happy that the federal government understood yesterday that Nord Stream 2 cannot go ahead.

That was so urgently needed," said the head of the conservative EPP group in the European Parliament during a visit to Lithuania.

"That was a big step for the credibility of the western world." Germany, as a leading country in Europe, has also regained credibility, said Weber.

Nord Stream 2: AfD and left criticize the temporary end

Criticism of the federal government's decision came from the AfD* and the left*.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz* quit Nord Stream 2 to the detriment of citizens, wrote co-group leader Alice Weidel on Wednesday on her Facebook page.

The "German special path" will thus become an existential problem for the citizens, for whom energy is already a luxury good.

The left-wing faction's foreign policy spokesman, Gregor Gysi, was also critical: "Here, a political interest of the Greens and an economic interest of the USA*, who want to sell us fracking gas here, are mixed with international politics," Gysi told

.

"For me, it's abuse because the US, on the other hand, is not cutting oil supplies from Russia to the US - Russia is the second largest oil exporter to the US - by a liter."

The energy expert Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research told the dpa news agency on Tuesday: "Without question, we are in a very serious situation, also in the midst of a fossil energy war." The energy transition must be pushed in order to get away from all fossil energies as far as possible.

"Gas prices have already risen due to the difficult situation and further price increases are now more likely," said Kemfert.

"We are currently paying the price for the delayed energy transition."