EU parliament voted against Nord Stream
A big majority of the EU Parliament this week voted against the Nord Stream gas pipeline project. The Russian-German-Dutch consortium says the vote will not impact the projected 1200 km long pipeline across the Baltic Sea. At the same time, however, the Nord Stream company struggles to get necessary permissions from affected countries.
The EU Parliament resolution on the pipeline was based on a proposal from representatives of the highly Russia-sceptical Polish Law and Justice Party, newspaper Kommersant reports. Although made less hard-worded than the original Polish version, the resolution was approved by as many as 443 MEP. 60 deputies voted against.
EU protest
The resolution is the first official EU protest against the huge pipeline project in the Baltic Sea. The 1200 km long pipeline will cross over the seabed of the Baltic Sea from Vyborg, Russia, to Greifswald in Germany. According to plans, the Nord Stream will be connected with a pipeline leading from the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea.
The resolution reads that all negative effects on local environment must be carefully studied before the project is approved.
“No problem”
Meanwhile, the Nord Stream supporters say the EU Parliament resolution will have no effect on the project, arguing that agreements with national governments already have been concluded. In addition, Nord Stream press spokeswoman Irina Vasileva, underlines to Kommersant that the resolution is nothing more than a recommendation.
However, there is no doubt that the Nord Stream partners Gazprom (51%), E.On (20%), BASF (20%) and Gasunie (9%) are facing major challenges in getting the project finally approved. Several of the affected countries, among them Sweden, Finland and Estonia have expressed serious scepticism with the project.
The project time schedules are now also being strained with the official project start set to mid-2011, more than one year later than originally scheduled. In addition, costs are getting higher. From the original project price tag of 7 billion EUR, the estimated sum has now risen to about 8 billion EUR.
The Nord Stream project is historic is several ways. The length of the underwater pipeline is unprecedented. So is also the 100 million EUR spent on environmental planning.
