INTERNATIONAL - PIPELINES EU Commissioners back Nord Stream but legal delays loom

摘要

Two EU Commisioners yesterday offered support to the German-Russian Nord Stream pipeline. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, a conservative Greek politician, praised the project’s ‘transparency’ and raised no strong ecological objections. Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs of Latvia called for an early start to Nord Stream to enhance European energy security, saying this was especially important given the ‘very slow progress’ of projects to supply the EU with gas. Nord Stream stated that announcements of a logistics partner, and of revised investment costs, were due very soon.