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French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken about his concerns about the Nord Stream 2 project to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project should not increase Europe’s dependence on Russia. According to Reuters, this was announced at a press conference on August 28 by French President Emmanuel Macron.
He added that he expressed this concern to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I don’t think the approach we should take with Russia should be naive, and I don’t think it should increase our dependence on Russia. This has always fueled my doubts about the Nord Stream 2 project. [Меркель] knows it “, – said Macron, answering questions from journalists.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is supposed to connect Russia with Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The length of the route is more than 1200 km, the capacity of the new gas pipeline will be 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The project has a value of 9.5 billion euros and is financed by the Russian Gazprom and five European companies: the Anglo-Dutch Shell, the German Wintershall and Uniper, the French Engie and the Austrian OMV.
Construction of the gas pipeline was expected to be completed by the end of 2019, but then the launch of Nord Stream 2 was postponed until the end of 2020.
The pipeline construction was frozen after US President Donald Trump signed the country’s defense budget for 2020 in December 2019, which provides for the imposition of sanctions against the Turkish Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. Following this, the Swiss company Allseas suspended construction work on Nord Stream 2 and pulled its pipe-laying vessels out of the Baltic Sea. At the time of the suspension of the work, 160 km of pipes remained to be laid along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, reported Neftegaz.ru.
Kommersant reported that there are now two Russian ships in Mukran harbor: the Fortuna barge and the Akademik Chersky ship. According to the newspaper, Gazprom plans to use both vessels to complete the project.
On July 21, the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US Congress, approved the Department of Defense budget for fiscal year 2021, which provides for new sanctions against Nord Stream 2. On July 23, the Senate The United States approved the Senate defense budget bill. Before being submitted for the signature of the President of the United States, the versions of the documents adopted by the House of Representatives and the Senate must be agreed upon.
The authorities of Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia consider Nord Stream 2 a threat to the energy security of Europe.
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