BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — In October, European Commission Energy Union Vice President Maros Sefcovic said that the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline project would hurt EU energy security due to increased reliance on Russian gas imports. Last week, European Council President Donald Tusk said that the Nord Stream 2 was not in the EU interests.
"For whoever who want [the project's] implementation and formalization failure it would be a so-called shoot in the foot, because this is about Europe's energy balance, safeguarding security of supplies, these are primarily important issues," Alexei Ulyukayev told reporters in Brussels.
The Nord Stream 2 project is a joint venture to build a gas pipeline that would run under the Baltic Sea to provide an additional route for Russian gas supplies to Germany, bypassing the three Baltic countries and Poland.
Russian energy giant Gazprom started the project with a consortium of five large European energy companies, namely, BASF, EON, Engie, OMV and Shell.
The project plans to use the original Nord Stream pipeline for 86 percent of the route before branching off. It will have a capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, to be supplied to European customers.
