Warsaw: Poland painstakingly working to prevent Nord Stream 2 pipeline
Polish Deputy Minister of Energy Michał Kurtyka said that Warsaw has demanded that the EU gas directive be changed as soon as possible to prevent the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Polskie Radio reports.
According to Kurtyka, the ambassadors of the European Union will amend the document in late June. The deputy minister said this has become possible as a result of "the hard, painstaking and months-long work of Polish diplomats." These amendments will extend EU legislation to all gas pipelines.
In November last year, the European Commission proposed to amend the EU gas directive. However, Bulgaria, which presided over the EU for six months of this year, limited this to meetings of experts and did not upgrade the vote to the level of ambassadors and ministers. On July 1, the chairmanship will be transferred to Austria. Kurtyka said that Poland expects Austria to “be objective and not protect its own interests." "The presiding country should behave neutrally," the deputy minister stressed.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be 1,200 kilometers long and it will run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to the German city of Greifswald. The gas pipeline will be launched in late 2019 to early 2020. In May 2018, the Nord Stream 2 AG operator began preparatory work at the gas pipeline section in Germany.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the Russian gas pipeline project was "very dangerous" for Europe. Poland also said that the third part of the energy package, the EU energy legislation, is applicable to the offshore section of the pipeline. The key requirements of this document are the separation of the functions of supplier and the gas transit provider, as well as the provision of access to pipeline for the third-party companies.