European Parliament: Nord Stream 2 must not be certified
Members of the European Parliament responsible for the development of the current EU gas legislation sent a letter to the German gas market regulator urging it not to certify the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.
According to Bloomberg, MEPs are confident that the project does not meet the key requirement of the third energy package, namely, prohibiting one company to be both the owner of the pipeline and the gas supplier.
Nord Stream 2 AG, the construction operator and owner of the pipeline laid under the Baltic Sea, is a 100 percent subsidiary of the Russian gas giant Gazprom. Despite this, the company filed an application with the Federal Network Agency of Germany, claiming that it is independent of the supplier, that is, Gazprom.
The gas regulator has until January to consider the petition. But MEPs are sure that there is nothing to consider.
"The structure of the company does not guarantee independence from the operator, Gazprom, a key and dominant gas supplier," and its certification "will jeopardize the security of energy supplies to the EU," the letter reads.
Gazprom, meanwhile, is making another attempt to achieve an exemption from the third energy package, which does not allow it using more than half of Nord Stream 2 capacity.
Last year, Nord Stream 2 AG tried to get an exemption from the European gas directive, claiming to have completed Nord Stream 2 in May 2019 – before the third energy package was extended to offshore gas pipelines.
Gazprom proposed to consider date of the last investment into the project and not the physical completion of construction as the completion of Nord Stream 2. But Germany's gas regulator rejected that argument, and its decision was later upheld by the Düsseldorf court, where Nord Stream 2 AG lost its appeal in August 2021.
Now Gazprom appeals to the Supreme Court of Germany, demanding to cancel the earlier decision of the Düsseldorf court.
On October 4, the Danish Energy Agency reported that Nord Stream 2 AG had fulfilled the specifications for the commissioning of the gas pipeline. The company announced that it started filling the first line of Nord Stream 2 with gas. Commissioning work on the second line continues.