EU Council May Review Request for Mandate to Talks on Nord Stream 2 on June 26

EU ministers might review the European Commission’s (EC) request for a negotiating mandate with Russia on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project on June 26, a source told Sputnik on Friday.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the EC said in a statement that it had adopted a request to the Council of the European Union for a mandate to negotiate key principles of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project operation with Russia.

The source said that the EU ministers might consider the request at the Council’s meeting on energy on June 26, although this issue was not on the agenda of the session yet. EU heads of states’ approval would not be necessary after the ministers’ decision, the source added.

EC spokesman Alexander Winterstein said at a briefing, meanwhile, that the negotiating mandate on the gas pipeline was needed "to avoid that this project, if it ever materializes, would operate in a legal void." He declined to answer how the European Commission would act in case of Russia’s refusal to negotiate on the special regulation for the Nord Stream 2 operation.

From the Commission’s point of view, the Nord Stream 2 project must comply with the following principles: transparency in pipeline operation, non-discriminatory tariff-setting, an appropriate level of non-discriminatory third party access and a degree of separation between activities of supply and transmission.

Nord Stream 2, a joint venture of Russia’s Gazprom with France's Engie, Austria’s OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell, Germany's Uniper and Wintershall, will bring an estimated 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Germany across the Baltic Sea, while bypassing Ukraine. The launch of the pipeline is planned for 2018.