Co-chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) Norbert Walter-Boryans opposed the shutdown of Nord Stream-2, noting that the termination of the pipeline would mean that it would not be possible to rely on long-term planning for future projects.
“The biggest nonsense would be to build a debris pipeline over 1000 kilometers long. This would signal that long-term planning for future projects cannot be relied upon”, – Walter-Boryans told Passauer Neue Presse.
The SPD co-chairman noted that Germany “does not want nuclear energy and, moreover, they plan to give up coal”.
“Then we cannot deprive ourselves of gas for the transitional period”, – the leader of the German Social Democrats believes.
Nord Stream-2 envisages the construction of two strings of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The project is actively opposed by the United States, which is promoting its liquefied natural gas to the EU, as well as Ukraine and a number of European countries. The states imposed sanctions on the gas pipeline in December 2019, as a result of which the Swiss Allseas was forced to stop laying. It continued a year later – in December 2020, by the forces of the Russian pipe-laying vessel Fortuna, and on April 27 this year, Akademik Chersky joined it. At the same time, the United States has since repeatedly tightened sanctions against the project.
The Russian Federation has repeatedly called to stop mentioning Nord Stream 2 in the context of any politicization, since it is a commercial project that is beneficial to both Russia and the European Union. The Federal Republic of Germany supports the completion of the gas pipeline and rejects the unilateral extraterritorial sanctions of the United States.