The planned construction of the Nord Stream 2, a twin pipeline system transporting gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, is clearly out of accord with European policy towards Ukraine, said Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák in an interview for the TASR press agency on Monday. "Its realisation and the subsequent elimination of Ukraine as a transit country for Russian gas transport would significantly affect Ukraine's geopolitical and economic stance in a negative way, as it earns €2 billion a year from gas transit", said Lajčák, adding that Kiev itself views the project as hostile. An agreement on expanding the current Nord Stream gas pipeline was signed by Russian energy giant Gazprom with a consortium of five European companies E.ON, BASF/Wintershall, OMV, ENGIE and Royal Dutch Shell in September 2015. Its critics point out that the current Nord Stream pipeline can only operate at 50 percent of its capacity due to EU rules on economic competition, meaning that its expansion doesn't make sense. According to them, this only points to Russia's only goal - to circumvent Ukraine, which would lose its position as a key transit country.
Slovakia would also suffer from this as, according to the Economy Ministry, it would lose yearly earnings of €400 million in gas transit that comes from Russia via Ukraine and is directed further west. It would affect Slovakia's position as an important player in energy. It was decided at the EU summit in December that the project is to be assessed by the European Commission in order to check whether it complies with Energy Union principles. Apart from the Visegrad Four countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Greece, Latvia and Lithuania have also asked for this. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has spoken against expanding the current capacity of Nord Stream. According to him, it would be unfair if the European Commission approved this project, as it previously blocked the proposed South Stream gas pipeline, which was set to pass through Italy. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said that the criticism of the project has been politicised in the EU.
