Nord Stream 2 politics

摘要

These are turbulent times for Russia's planned 55 Bcm/year Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea to Germany as both European and US policy-makers explore initiatives that could impact the project. These include the European Commission asking EU national governments for a mandate to negotiate with Russia a specific legal framework to govern the pipeline. Then the US Senate proposed giving the US president powers to impose sanctions on Russian energy pipeline projects. Finally, the Commission said it was looking at how to change EU laws to make them binding on offshore pipelines originating outside the EU, including Nord Stream 2.