Germany, the main beneficiary of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Europe, appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after the court in 2019 overruled a decision by the European Commission granting Gazprom monopoly in access to the Opal pipeline.
That ruling came after a subsidiary of Polish state-run gas company PGNiG challenged the decision, claiming it infringed EU rules on energy security.
The Commission’s decision meant that Russia would have been able to use 80 percent—from a previous 50 percent—of the capacity of the Opal pipeline, a key element of the Nord Stream 2 project.
Nord Stream 2, designed to double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline, is expected to send around 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Poland has strongly criticized the gas link amid concerns that the pipeline will make the European Union more dependent on Russian gas. The United States says the project weakens the security of Poland’s eastern neighbour Ukraine.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters