Premiers of Ukraine and Slovakia criticise Nord Stream gas pipeline

The announced expanding of transport capacity of the Nord Stream gas pipeline is an anti-Ukrainian and anti-European project. Ukrainian Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that after talks with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico in Bratislava on Thursday. The two premiers were reacting to a preliminary agreement of Russian giant Gazprom and Western European energy concerns on doubling the transport capacity of Nord Stream. "They're making fools of us", said Robert Fico. "It isn't possible to talk on a political level about the need to stabilise Ukraine while at the same time adopting a decision that places not only Ukraine, but also Slovakia into an unenviable position, as this affects the transit of huge amounts of gas through both Ukraine and Slovakia", said the Slovak premier. He added that it may cost Ukraine billions and Slovakia hundreds of millions of euro each year. Robert Fico rejected the notion that the deal between Gazprom and European energy companies is only a matter of business. He believes that these concerns operating in EU countries have "betrayed" Slovakia as an EU member country. According to him, this is at odds with political agreements made at the European Council. The Slovak Prime Minister says he will bring the issue up at next month's EU summit. The first Nord Stream branch was introduced in November 2011 and the second one in 2012. The gas pipeline worth €7.4 billion goes from Russia to Germany along via the bed of the Baltic Sea.