The controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline has been rescued from a German perspective. According to the SPIEGEL, the Federal Government has been working hard over the past two days to ensure that an amendment to the EU Gas Directive proposed by the Romanian EU Council Presidency failed at the meeting of EU ambassadors on Friday afternoon in Brussels.
Instead, a large majority voted for a compromise that the Germans and French had negotiated at the last minute. Although it will complicate the operation of Nord Stream 2, it is unlikely to make it impossible.
The compromise was successful, "because Germany and France have worked very closely together," said Angela Merkel. This shows for the first time how much the Chancellor cares about the controversial pipeline project. So far, it has often been said that she only joins Nord Stream 2 because she does not want trouble with the pro-Russia parts of the SPD or any additional arguments with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But when the French government surprisingly turned on a counter-move to Nord Stream 2 on Thursday, the German government intervened resolutely.
Key role for Germany
The compromise that has now been found is a classic European one: it remains that Nord Stream 2, as required by the EU Commission, falls within the scope of the Gas Directive in the future. In order for the pipeline operator and gas supplier to be separated, the compromise appeals to the opponents of the project. Gazprom can not easily assume both roles, as previously planned.
However, Germany has assured itself of a stronger role in this process. So there should be only one regulator - Germany just. But he has to apply the gas directive. If it comes, which is likely, now to negotiations with Russia about the separation of grid and production, Germany could lead these talks on behalf of the EU - but only after appropriate authorization. The price of the impact is that EU law now becomes applicable to pipelines with third countries for the first time.
All in all, one can say that Germany has now fought a key role in a process that the Federal Government has hitherto strongly rejected. In the end, all EU countries except Bulgaria voted in favor of the compromise. Given how much the project divides the EU, that's a small sensation.
Everything just a misunderstanding between Paris and Berlin?
On Thursday it had not looked like it: completely surprising, France seemed to switch to the side of Nord Stream opponents. Previously, people in Berlin always had the impression that they could rely on Paris to prevent the revision of the EU Gas Directive. The Federal Government was all the more surprised when the French Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that they were thinking about approving the new gas directive.
In the meantime, the procedure in Berlin is explained in such a way that an official from the lead French energy ministry has been gossiping, but the Élysée Palace and thus President Emmanuel Macron have not dealt with the matter at all. This is supported by the fact that the Élysée often comes late in the negotiation of Brussels' negotiating positions.
If the German interpretation is correct, the Franco-German dispute of the past few days is more of an accident and not so much a deliberate withdrawal of Macron from Merkel. And certainly not a rematch for the fact that the Chancellor has repeatedly hung the President, such as his ideas for reforms in the euro area. There will still be "many meetings where you can convince yourself that the spirit of the Aachen meeting is alive," Merkel said.
Apparently with the approval of Macrons, German and French experts set out on Thursday and the night of Friday to develop an alternative text to the proposal of the Romanian Council Presidency.
Massive pressure from the USA
The compromise makes the project even more complicated, experts admiringly admit, but Nord Stream 2 will not be strangled. And that is crucial for the federal government. The commission, it is said, has so far repeatedly tried in vain to torpedo the pipeline project with legally shaky advances, gave at the end of their blessing.
It is clear that Germany had to assert itself robustly: against the doubters in the bureaucrats of the Paris Ministry of Energy, an unwilling Romanian Council Presidency and pressure from the United States. According to diplomats, Washington is said to have made several EU states extremely explicit about their interests - in a way that has already been used in dealing with Iran. In other words, more or less unbounded sanctions threats came into play.
One target was Romania, which holds the biannually rotating EU Council Presidency and thus sits at the switch of power. Already on Wednesday Merkel tried to bring an apparently somewhat cumbersome Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila by telephone on line. But on Friday Bucharest did not want to put the Franco-German proposal for the gas directive at the meeting of the ambassadors on the agenda, but only let it vote on its own proposal.
Clear announcement to Romania
Only after massive clues from Berlin and other capitals that this did not comply with the rules, Bucharest gave way. For German conditions, this was an unusual clear message: As Council President, Romania has to mediate neutrally between the countries of the EU.
It is also clear: Chancellor Merkel is actually to Nord Stream 2. She used all the diplomatic weight of the Federal Republic to enforce the pipeline with Putin's Russia against bulky European partners - and also against the US, whose President Donald Trump reached over the now Compromise should not be built.
The US government has recently vehemently and publicly emphasized that it is against the project. Europe becomes dependent on Putin's gas and becomes blackmailable, according to Washington. However, the Americans are also openly pursuing their own economic interests: They want to sell the Europeans their fracking-won liquefied gas - which is clearly much more expensive than Russian gas.
The amended proposal now goes to the European Parliament. Many MPs would have wished for a sharper Romanian proposal, but they have only one choice: they either signal the German-French compromise or block it. Then there is no regulation at all - and Nord Stream 2 is even better.