Nord Stream 2 as a means of pressure

When Secretary of State Annalena Baerbock (Greens) traveled to Washington on her inaugural visit on Wednesday, she knew that she would have questions about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. While Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatening Ukraine, the natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea is of strategic importance. The USA and Eastern European countries such as Poland therefore strictly reject the project. On the other hand, the federal government usually first of all points out that the Federal Network Agency has currently suspended the certification process for Nord Stream anyway.

Baerbock did the same on Wednesday during her joint press conference with her US counterpart Antony Blinken in the first part of her answer regarding the question of whether a Russian attack on Ukraine would lead to an end for Nord Stream 2. But then the Foreign Minister referred to the “geopolitical implications” of the pipe project.

Blinken had made a similarly clear statement earlier at the joint press conference with a view to Nord Stream 2. In the event of Russian aggression against Ukraine, future gas deliveries via the pipeline would be difficult to imagine, Blinken said. “Some may see Nord Stream 2 as a lever Russia can use against Europe. In fact, it is a lever that Europe can use against Russia, ”said Blinken.

Baerbock puts “effective measures” in the room

Baerbock made it clear in Washington that, in view of the tense situation on Ukraine’s eastern border, the main aim was to bring about a de-escalation. Nevertheless, she also emphasized that the German government would initiate “effective measures” together with the EU partners if Russia were to use energy as a weapon or if it continued to act aggressively against Ukraine.

What sanctions should the EU states resort to in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine? An EU summit in Brussels last month dealt with precisely this question. However, the answer from Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to the question of whether the termination of the pipeline project is one of the possible countermeasures was less clear than Baerbock’s remarks in Washington. Scholz had stated that the pipeline was a purely “private-sector project”.

On the other hand, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, among others, had demanded at the EU meeting that the gas pipeline should be “part of the big puzzle” in the event of conceivable punitive measures. Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins had also demanded that the project be stopped if Russia’s military activities on the Ukrainian eastern border continue to increase.

In the end, the EU summit agreed on the wording that aggression against Ukraine would “result in massive consequences and high costs”, “including restrictive measures agreed with partners”. The 27 EU states deliberately left open which countermeasures this might be. An end for Nord Stream 2 could well be one of them – even if Scholz initially rejects such an automatism in the event of a military escalation.

SPD MEP Vulture: The solution lies in diversification

The Social Democrats in Brussels also see very well that the pipeline project is by no means sacrosanct. The SPD MEP Jens Geier warned that energy prices in Europe are currently unusually high. “If you want to do without suppliers in this situation, you create monopolies, which inevitably lead to additional price increases,” Geier told Tagessspiegel. “At the same time, we need natural gas as a bridge into the age of renewables,” says Geier. However, the Social Democrat does not believe in Germany making itself overly dependent on Russian gas supplies: “In the long term, the solution lies in expanding renewables and diversifying the energy supply by importing green energy and green waterways from neighboring regions of Europe.”

The SPD politician Michael Roth became even clearer. “Of course, if Russia escalates further, I cannot imagine that we will simply do business as usual,” said the new chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday in a Reuters TV interview. “Of course this will also have a possible impact on the Nord Stream 2 project,” said Roth. “But I still hope that we don’t have to go that far.”