Sweden greenlights construction of German-Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2

The Swedish government has given the green light for construction of the controversial natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 that connects Germany with Russia via the Baltic Sea, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Focus Online. While Sweden has “big concerns” about the project that runs through its territorial waters, there are “no objective grounds”, such as a negative environmental impact assessment, on which it could veto it, the article says. Sweden’s economy minister, Mikael Damberg, said Nord Stream 2 “bears the risk of violating the EU’s energy union targets and not being in line with existing EU law”. Germany and Finland have already allowed the project to continue, but several European states, especially Denmark, Poland and the Baltic states, vehemently oppose the pipeline.

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet Germany’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.