German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke out Thursday against reported US-Russian plans to relaunch the controversial Baltic Sea gas pipeline Nord Stream 2.
“Nord Stream 2 currently has no operating license, and this is not expected to change,” Merz was quoted as saying by news weekly Die Zeit.
German politicians have been alarmed by reports that US and Russian envoys are discussing a relaunch of the pipeline, this time with the involvement of American investors.
Nord Stream 2 was completed in 2021 but never went into operation as Germany scrapped the project after Russia launched its full-scale Ukraine invasion in February 2022.
In September that year, huge underwater explosions destroyed both pipes of the existing Nord Stream 1 and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipes, in an attack for which Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame.
The two Nord Stream 1 pipelines had for years shipped cheap Russian gas that helped power Europe’s biggest economy.
The Nord Stream 2 operating company, based in Switzerland and owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, escaped outright liquidation last week when a court approved an agreement reached with its creditors.
German and British media have reported that Washington and Moscow, in their talks on ending the Ukraine war, are discussing reviving the project.
US and German media have reported they are weighing a plan under which a US investor would buy gas from Russia, then sell it as American-branded gas to Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed in late March that indeed “there is talk about the Nord Streams,” speaking on state-controlled Channel One TV.
He said it would be “interesting if the Americans use their influence on Europe and force it not to refuse Russian gas”, according to comments published on his ministry website.
The Nord Stream project was always controversial as it allowed Russia to wield strong influence over German and EU energy supplies.
After the explosions, gas began bubbling up at four rupture points, creating enormous foamy patches on the surface where massive amounts of methane escaped into the atmosphere.
For now the idea of a relaunch seems highly abstract — any revived project would require agreement and certification from Berlin.
A lawmaker from Merz’s CDU party, Thomas Bareiss, suggested earlier this year that relaunching Nord Stream 2 after a Ukraine peace deal could help Germany — comments that quickly drew widespread condemnation.
The centre-left Social Democrats’ foreign policy expert Michael Roth, one of many critics, called the comments “the completely wrong signal at the completely wrong time”.
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