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Pipeline tubes in the seaport of Sassnitz on the island of Rügen: The tubes were not only stored for Nord Stream 2, but also for »Baltic Pipe«
Photo: Frank Hoermann / Nordlicht photo agency / IMAGO
Independence from Russian gas has been one of the major political issues since the Russian invasion of Ukraine - not only in Germany.
The "Baltic Pipe" is supposed to supply Poland with Norwegian gas, but the construction work under the Baltic Sea was stopped by the Danish environmental authority last May for animal welfare reasons.
Danish company Energinet has now announced that construction work on the pipeline can continue in East Jutland and on the western side of the island of Funen.
According to Energinet, the approval includes a number of additional requirements regarding protected animal species.
The pipeline is scheduled to start operations in January 2023.
Poland had already declared in 2019 that it would not extend the contract with the Russian gas company Gazprom beyond 2022.
At the time, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described the agreement with Denmark as a "giant step towards the security and independence of the Polish energy sector".
Poland currently gets two-thirds of its gas from Russia.
A similar Russian dependency can also be observed in Germany;
a total of 90 percent of Germany's natural gas requirements are currently imported, exclusively via pipelines.
Russia accounts for 55 percent of these imports.
The end of Nord Stream 2
As with the "Baltic Pipe", the gas should flow through a new Baltic Sea pipeline in the future, but still from Russia to Germany.
In response to Moscow's recognition of the eastern Ukrainian separatist areas, the German government put the controversial Nord Stream 2 project on hold last week.
It is also unclear whether Nord Stream 2 can ever be put into operation again.
As the government councilor of the Swiss canton of Zug announced on Tuesday, the operating company of the pipeline is insolvent due to sanctions resulting from the crisis in Eastern Europe.
Federal Economics Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said last week that the war in Ukraine must lead to a turning point in German energy policy.
"I'm expecting a federal consensus that we're going to get serious now and not talk about procedures to expand power grids, power plants or renewable energies."
hba/AFP