"If built, Nord Stream 2 would have to fully comply, as any other infrastructure project, with applicable EU law, including on energy and environment," Sefcovic said at a joint EU parliamentary conference.
He reiterated calls for the project’s compliance with the Third Energy Package and argued that Nord Stream 2 could further increase "excess capacity from Russia to the EU."
"This raises concerns, and I am pretty sure this will play a role in this debate," Sefcovic stressed.
Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture of Russia’s Gazprom and Austria’s energy group OMV aiming to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to Europe across the Baltic Sea. The project plans to use the original Nord Stream pipeline for 86 percent of the route before branching off.
Gazprom has a 50-percent share in the gas pipeline project. OMV’s share is 10 percent, with the rest belonging to Germany’s BASF, France’s Engie, Denmark’s Shell, and Uniper, a spin-off of the German energy supplier E.ON.
Sefcovic has expressed numerous reservations with the project, opposed by eight eastern EU member states, most recently in February when he drew attention to political-level issues relating to Nord Stream 2.
