EU ambassadors held talks in Brussels on Monday intended to lead up to a “strategic debate” by European leaders on the future of relations between the European Union and the United States, Poland’s biznesalert.pl website reported.
Such a debate is to take place at an upcoming EU summit, according to Polish state news agency PAP.
Meanwhile, the agency added, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has invited Biden to a meeting of the council in the first half of 2021.
The PAP agency cited a source it did not name as saying that during Monday’s talks, the Polish ambassador to the EU, Andrzej Sadoś, insisted that a new opening in EU-US relations after the recent American elections cannot be a “hostage” to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline promoted by Russia, a project which threatens the energy security of many EU member states and partner countries.
The company behind the contested Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has announced it will resume construction this month after work was put on hold for a year due to US sanctions, according to a report.
Last month, US House and Senate negotiators agreed to target insurers and certification companies working on the Russian gas project in a planned defense bill set to be passed this year.
In October, the United States targeted companies “providing services or facilities for upgrades or installation of equipment” for vessels participating in the construction of Nord Stream 2 and companies funding those upgrades and installations.
The pipeline is designed to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Warsaw has vehemently opposed the project, saying it would pose a threat to Europe’s energy security by doubling Russia’s gas export capacity via the Baltic Sea.
(pk)
Source: PAP/ biznesalert.pl