Apparent German support for the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline across the Baltic Sea is wavering.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the pipeline cannot advance unless Ukraine retains a role as a transit country for Russian natural gas bound for Europe.
Nord Stream 2 would carry Russian gas to Greifswald, Germany, mostly paralleling the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline and lowering the need for pipeline gas transport across Ukraine.
The project is resisted by the governments of countries, such as Poland and the Baltic states, that see Russian gas exports as a lever of influence over Europe. Similar concerns have been raised in the US Senate (OGJ Online, Mar. 15, 2018).
Merkel until now has treated Nord Stream 2 as strictly a business matter. Last month, an agency of her government issued permits for construction and operation of the pipeline in Germany’s exclusive economic zone (OGJ Online, Mar. 28, 2018). But the chancellor’s comments after her Apr. 10 meeting with Poroshenko seemed to signal a shift in position. “I made it very clear that a project such as Nord Stream 2 is in our view not possible without clarity on how Ukrainian transit will proceed,” she said as she and Poroshenko met news reporters, according to Deutsche Welle. “This isn’t only about an economic project. There are political factors to be considered.”
In an Apr. 9 interview with Handelsblatt, a business newspaper, Poroshenko had called on Germany to resist construction of the pipeline.
He said Nord Stream 2 would allow for an “economic and energy blockade” against his country and called Russia an “extremely unreliable partner” in energy trade.