Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 16
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
The European Commission will assess the compliance of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project with the EU laws, a Commission's spokesperson told Trend.
"The Commission takes note of the announcement by Gazprom on 4 September 2015, together with E.ON, Wintershall, OMV, ENGIE and Shell, to consider building two further stretches of Nord Stream pipeline," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson noted that any pipeline, north or south, serving the territory of the EU Member States has to fully respect the EU law.
"As it has done in the past, the Commission will assess any such new pipeline rigorously against the application of EU law - notably in the field of energy, environment, internal market and competition," the spokesperson added.
In early September Russia's Gazprom and its European partners signed a shareholders' agreement on the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project that will run beneath the Baltic Sea to Europe. The agreement was signed between Gazprom PJSC, BASF/Wintershall, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, EON AG and ENGIE.
The Nord Stream-2 project envisages the construction of two pipelines directly from Russia to Germany, bypassing transit countries including Ukraine and Poland. The capacity of the two pipelines will be up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
According to Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, Nord Stream-2 project will be in line with the European laws, obviously referring to the Third Energy Package.
The project was recently discussed during the meeting of Alexey Miller with European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic.
