Nord Stream 2 AG Starts Arbitrage Against EU Over Gas Directive Amendments

Nord Stream 2 AG Starts Arbitrage Against EU Over Gas Directive Amendments

Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for delivering Russian gas to Europe, has launched arbitration against the European Union over discrepancy between the amendments to the EU Gas Directive and the Energy Charter Treaty, according to Russia's Gazprom

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th November, 2019) Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for delivering Russian gas to Europe, has launched arbitration against the European Union over discrepancy between the amendments to the EU Gas Directive and the Energy Charter Treaty, according to Russia's Gazprom.

"On September 26, 2019, Nord Stream 2 AG announced launching a special arbitrage ... against the EU ... under the Energy Charter Treaty. Nord Stream 2 AG believes that the EU has violated its commitments ... having adopted discriminating amendments to the Gas Directive," Gazprom's documents, seen by Sputnik, have revealed.

Apart from that, Nord Stream 2 AG filed in July a lawsuit with the Court of Justice of the European Union on partially abolishing the amendments over the too short deadlines for EU member states for providing exemptions from the directive.

The amendments, which came into force in May, extend EU principles on tariff regulation, ownership unbundling and transparency to all pipelines entering the bloc from non-EU countries, and may therefore affect both the existing Nord Stream pipeline and the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, expected to be completed by the end of 2019.