The coincidence of the completion of the construction of the first string of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline and Denmark’s revocation of permission to build the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline is not accidental, says Andrzej Dera, Secretary of State in the Office of the President of Poland.
Earlier, the Danish Environmental and Food Appeal Board withdrew a permit to build the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline. According to the Board of Appeal, the permit of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency does not sufficiently describe the measures taken to protect sleepyheads, wood mice and bats, which are protected by the Annex of the European Fourth Habitat Directive, during the construction of the 210 km pipeline through Denmark.
“It is difficult to talk about an accident here”, – Dera said on the air of Polish Radio.
According to him, at the moment when they announced “the completion of the construction of the first string (the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline – ed.), the position of the Danish authorities regarding the construction permit for the Baltic Pipe was changed almost the next day”.
He recalled that with the help of Baltic Pipe, Poland hoped to import natural gas from Norway in approximately the same volumes that are currently supplied from Russia.
“And suddenly it turns out that despite the fact that there were all the permits, and, of course, the environmental permit, which allowed the start of this investment, there is an unexpected change of position”, – said the Secretary of State.
He noted that the possible postponement of the commissioning of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline “has one very significant consequence”.
“Next year, the contract for the supply of Russian gas to Poland ends. At the moment when there is no alternative, they can put an energy gun to our temples, and the Russian side will set us the worst conditions and prices”, – Dera said.
“There is no chance here. Unfortunately, this is all correlated, and we do not perceive it as an accident”, – he concluded.
Earlier speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the laying of the first string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been successfully completed, work on the second string continues, and Gazprom is ready to fill Nord Stream-2 with gas.
Nord Stream-2 envisages the construction of two lines 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, Akademik Chersky joined it.
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.