RPT: REVIEW - Nord Stream 2 Still Faces Opposition From US, German Politicians As Construction Continues

BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2020) This week, Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) told Sputnik that its permit for laying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in German waters is valid through December and the request for January-April is being under consideration, meaning that the project will be chugging along despite the interference from the United States and even some politicians at home.

Germany imports a lot of gas, especially following Chancellor Angela Merkel's post-Fukushima decision to shut down the country's nuclear power plants in pursuit of other sources of energy, necessitating a stable and constant energy supply, provided mostly by Russia through Ukraine and Nord Stream, the first gas pipeline along the Baltic seabed.

"Since their unfortunate choice of intermittent energies (solar and wind) and their decision to stop nuclear altogether, it obliges them to replace their polluting coal-fired power stations and to invest massively in gas power stations. Russian gas is essential and it is the best environmental solution for Europe, if only because distance for transportation is short and a gas pipeline leaves the smallest environmental footprint," Samuele Furfari, a professor of energy geopolitics at the Free University of Brussels, told Sputnik.

The US, under former the former president, Barack Obama, and more so even under Donald Trump, has voiced its opposition to Berlin's alleged dependence on Russian natural resources. Last December, President Trump signed the 2020 defense budget, which included sanctions against the project.

According to Steffen Kotre, a member of the German lower house, as well as the engineer and energy spokesman for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), the negative stance of Washington will not change even with Democrat Joe Biden in the White House.

"As for the president-elect Joe Biden, his position and that of the Democrats does not help either. They will exert the same pressure as Trump. Merkel could try to improve the relations with Biden and he might be keen to show some willingness to repair relations, but I doubt it," Kotre told Sputnik.

Nevertheless, the work on the pipeline continued even in the face of the withdrawal of Allseas, a Swiss company responsible for laying down the pipes, which forced Russian to finish the work on its own.

Some claim that by pressuring the project, Washington is trying to do away with competition against its own liquefied natural gas (LNG).

"The series of US pressure on Germany and Europe to halt Russia's gas supply is very long already. For the US, it would be a double victory: create problems for Russia and sell their own excess gas (since the beginning of the shale gas exploitation) under the form of LNG to Europe," Furfari added.

POSITION OF GERMAN POLITICAL CLASS

The situation has further exacerbated after the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny with many in the German political establishment accusing the Kremlin of orchestrating the incident and calling for Nord Stream 2 to be included in a European response to the incident.

Some went even further, as the head of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, who demanded the stoppage of the Nord Stream 2 project. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also a CDU member and a good friend of Merkel, who was a party leader for a long time, stopped short of demanding the same.

At the same time, many are ill-at-ease as the abandonment at this stage of the Nordstream 2 project would be a net loss for Germany.

"The old school politicians of the CDU/CU and SPD [Social Democratic Party] want to complete the pipeline of course and they have trapped themselves in their populist declarations against Moscow. They are not patriots; they don't care for the interests of Germany," Kotre said.

His sentiment is echoed by fellow AfD colleague Maximilian Krah, an EU lawmaker.

"We cannot afford to give up our interests just to please the US. Our relationship with Russia is tense. Nord Stream 2 is a great opportunity to improve. Those who do not adhere to our decisions and try to impose sanctions on us must expect counter-sanctions on our part. This also applies to the USA, whether it is Trump or Biden that we talk to," Krah told Sputnik.

GERMANY'S MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN OFFERS SOLUTION

In the northern German states with many jobs and investments at stake over the project, the reaction to the aforementioned calls in Berlin has been taken very sourly.

Recently, the authorities of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have worked on a solution acceptable to all in Germany: the creation of a Climate change foundation to circumvent US sanctions against the pipeline, according to the Bild newspaper. The foundation will identify the Russian-led pipeline project as "an essential element of environmental protection in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern," the newspaper reports.

"The Foundation idea is excellent ... With this solution, German but also Austrian, Swiss and French companies involved would not work directly for the Russian side anymore, but for a commercial enterprise behind a screen Fund. US sanctions would be avoided. It is another way to engage and reduce the pressure. It would also indicate that the German federal government is serious about its energy policy," Kotre said.

Krah has seconded that initiative as well.

"It is an excellent idea to try and use this way to progress. Germany and its industries are dependent on a stable and affordable energy supply. Without Nord Stream 2, German and European energy security is at stake. We won't do without the project. We decide for ourselves, not Washington, about our energy supply and trading partners," the lawmaker said.

Furfari, on the other hand, is skeptical.

"I don't believe that the idea of the Land of Mecklenburg, to create a Fund, will be enough to stop the Americans from imposing further sanctions if they do create the Fund. Interesting idea but not watertight enough. Look at the European effort to create a financial vehicle to circumvent the American sanctions on Iran and companies trading with Iran. It failed miserably," the expert stated.

Whether or not this scheme will work, Germany will continue moving between the two worlds, trying to both pleasing to its ally on the other side of the Atlantic as well as pursuing beneficial energy cooperation with Moscow. This, however, will not have a bearing on the energy situation in Europe, thinks Furfari.

"Gas is the energy of the future. This quarrel is more a question of geopolitics than of gas market. Europe is in the process of creating an integrated gas market. This new twist will not stop Nord Stream 2. In a few weeks or months at most, the project will be completed," the expert concluded.