Biden: Nord Stream 2 is bad for Europe
The Vice-President of the USA, Joe Biden, said that Washington is convinced that the construction of the Russian gas pipeline project "Nord Stream 2" is a bad thing for Europe.
"This will allow Russia to destabilize Ukraine,” Biden said on the 25th of August, 2016 in Stockholm, adding that Europe needs to diversify its sources of gas supply. "No country should use energy as a weapon," Biden said appealing to Russia.
Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipeline under construction that is intended to deliver gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine. The construction of the two pipelines is planned to be completed in 2019. The majority shareholder of the company responsible for the construction is the Russian Gazprom.
The EU and the U.S. insist that any new infrastructure in this field concerning the European Union should fully comply with the European Union's Third Energy Package.
Ukraine is one of the main transit countries with the largest gas storage facilities and capacities for gas transport in the EU. It handles a volume of more than 120 billion cubic meters per year.
Russia has repeatedly stated the need for diversification of risks and the unreliability of Ukraine as a transit country. Moscow is already supplying gas to Europe, mainly to Germany, bypassing Ukraine via the first Nord Stream pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea.
The European Union blocked the construction of a similar Russian project, “South Stream" because the pipeline should have been laid in the Black Sea.