Ukraine files complaint against Russia’s Nord Stream-2 project

KIEV, Feb 1 (PRIME) -- Ukraine has filed a complaint to the European Commission against construction of Russia’s Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Monday at a meeting with Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.

“Ukraine has filed an official complaint to the energy committee regarding construction of the Nord Stream-2 project, as it is a political project. We ask the European Commission to initiate an investigation and stop this anti-European, anti-Ukrainian, anti-Slovak, and anti-Polish project. We don’t want to let the Russians outplay us,” he said.

“We want to build a transparent European gas market, so we send a strong signal to our European partners and the European community. This project must not only be revised, but be cancelled as well.”

In September 2015, Russian gas giant Gazprom signed a shareholder agreement on the 55-billion-cubic-meter Nord Stream-2 pipeline, which encompasses laying two more lines of the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to the shore of Germany.

The agreement was signed with Germany’s E.ON and BASF/Wintershall, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, which will own 10% each, and France’s Engie, which will get a 9% stake.

In November 2015, OMV CEO Rainer Seele said the project will be implemented and it will be done in compliance with the third energy package. Later, a representative for E.ON said the project will improve Germany’s energy security.

On January 29, 2016, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said after a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila that Moscow and Helsinki plan to continue cooperation in construction of the Nord Stream-2, and Finland believes that the project is a commercial one.

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