The German Federal antimonopoly department has given the green light to the creation of a joint venture on 'Nord Stream-2'. The corresponding request was sent earlier to the Polish antimonopoly regulator Urzad Regulacji Energetyki (URE).
The project company Nord Stream 2 AG was formed in Switzerland's Zug in July of this year as a 100% subsidiary of Gazprom, Interfax reports. Initially, it was called New European Pipeline AG.
Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed experts, the deputy director of the energy direction of the Institute of Energy and Finances, Alexey Belogoriev, and analyst of Sberbank CIB, Valery Nesterov, who stated that the approval of the project of this joint venture by Berlin, is in any case a positive step, because Germany plays a key role, and more than any other EU country is interested in the implementation of 'Nord Stream-2'.
Alex Belogoriev pointed out that, of course, this news is a good sign, because the important thing now is for Gazprom to enlist the support of Germany, first of all because of its political weight, secondly because Berlin played a key role in 'Nord Stream', and thirdly because the new gas pipeline will be laid through its territory. "But the permission, which was given by the German antimonopoly department, directly concerns only the operating company, that is, the participation of European companies in the capital. This permission does not mean that Germany's antimonopoly department fully inspected the project 'Nord Stream-2' itself for compliance with the third and fifth directives of the Third Energy Package. Accordingly, the other EU countries have the opportunity, through the European Commission, to block the project, referring to the rules of the Third Energy Package," the expert noted.
The Deputy Director of the energy direction of the Institute of Energy reminded that 'Nord Stream-2' has a lot of ill-wishers in the European Union – virtually the whole of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe – in other words, countries that are well-wishers of Russia and take quite a constructive stance on the issue of sanctions and other similar issues, but do not support Moscow on this project.
An analyst of Sberbank CIB, Valery Nesterov, in his turn, specified that obtaining approval from the German federal antimonopoly department is only one of many steps towards the implementation of the project, one of the first stages, since the same approval must be given by Poland and the EU as a whole, as well as the EU Commission. "Now there is a rather difficult, sticky situation when, on the one hand, Germany and Netherlands consistently advocate for the project's implementation, and it seems like there is the support of France and even the UK, but at the same time, 10 countries, including the countries of Eastern Europe and Italy, strongly oppose the project," he pointed out.
Thus, according to Nesterov, 'Nord Stream-2' will be a litmus paper, a kind of test of the durability of the European community . "It will help to understand whether they are able to solve such issues together, in which there are traces of obvious differences in interests – both political and economic," he stated.
