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European Parliament Voted Against Nord Stream
A new barrier has emerged en route of Nord Stream. The European Parliament’s majority passed a resolution demanding an additional study for the potential negative impact of Nord Stream on the Baltic Sea.
The scandalous resolution of the European Parliament is the first official protest of the EU against the project. The document isn’t binding, but its adoption signals that Nord Stream opponents, first of all Poland, will do utmost to delay its implementation.
The resolution, which original draft imposed a ban on the project until all states agreed to it, has retained the general tone despite that it was stripped of the toughest provisions in the course of discussion. Its basic idea is that all negative environmental aftereffects should be thoroughly studied before laying pipes through the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Moreover, the document calls for creating alternative routes for gas supplies to Europe.
It is illustrative that 543 European parliamentarians voted for the resolution and no more than 60 opposed it.
The Nord Stream pipeline will connect the Baltic shore of Russia (the Vyborg area) with the Baltic shore of Germany (Greifswald). Its length is estimated at around 1,200km and the launch of the first pipe with the annual gas capacity of 27.5 billion cu meters has been slated for the end of 2010. Nord Stream holders are Gazprom (51 percent), German E.On and BASF (20 percent each) and Netherlands Gasunie (9 percent).
The response of Nord Stream supporters was cool. The European Parliament’s resolution will hardly impede the project, as all contracts and agreements have been long inked by the national governments. According to Nord Stream AG briefer Irina Vasilieva, the document is the mere recommendation and won’t affect progress in the project.
But all optimism of Nord Stream adherents notwithstanding, even the starting date of Nord Stream’s construction hasn’t been agreed yet. No bilateral meetings of presidents or prime ministers will accelerate the environmental documents’ passage through departments of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and some other states, the analyst speculate, specifying that the project is where it was November 14, 2006, when the files with environmental assessment were provided to the Baltic nations.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 10, 2008
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