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The leaders of Estonia and seven other European Union member states have signed a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker critical of the project to build Nord Stream 2, a second undersea gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
Estonia, 7 other countries send letter to Juncker on Nord Stream 2
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The letter has been signed by the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, as well as the president of Lithuania.
The planned second gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea is not a commercial project but a geopolitical one aimed at harming Ukraine and dividing Europe, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said speaking of the letter.
«It is highly regrettable that some of our larger EU partners are trying to argue that this is just a private commercial project. It is absolutely clear to all of us that energy projects of this scale are geopolitical and their goals are geopolitical. This is why eight leaders, including myself, have signed such a letter (to say) that the European Commission cannot ignore and turn a blind eye to further large-scale attempts to divide Europe and push it back to dependence on a single source, that is, the Russian energy source,» Grybauskaite said on LRT Radio on Thursday morning.
According to Grybauskaite, the pipeline poses a threat to the EU's solidarity and energy security. It is not an economic project, because the existing Nord Stream pipeline is operating at just over 50 percent of its capacity.
«Nord Stream 1 is operated at slightly more than 50 percent, which raises a lot of questions. Practically, a half of it is not being used. So, what is the purpose of having a Nord Stream 2? The purpose would be very clear. First, it is to bypass Ukraine so that it is no longer a transit country and things are even more difficult for it. What we see is a purely politicized project directed against Ukraine and some eastern EU countries. Also, there is apparently a divide and rule policy or a divide and influence policy,» she said.
The Russian gas giant Gazprom and five European companies last year signed an agreement on a joint venture, named New European Pipeline, for a 10-billion-euro expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline. The plan is to build two additional strings of Nord Stream by late 2019 to double the pipeline's annual throughput to 110 billion cubic meters.