The German parliament has not passed a law regulating the application of EU gas amendments in Germany.

“133 votes were cast, 355 votes are required to make a decision. Parliament therefore cannot make a decision, ”the Bundestag website says.

A new discussion of the document will take place next week, representatives of the SPD said.

The bill drafted by the ruling coalition of Germany was supposed to protect the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from new amendments to the EU Gas Directive adopted in April. They apply to offshore pipelines the requirements applicable to onshore pipelines.

Recall that Nord Stream 2 is two strands of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. m of gas per year, stretching from the coast of Russia in the Baltic Sea to Germany. The project is being implemented by Nord Stream 2 AG, half of which Gazprom has invested. The remainder was invested by European companies Uniper, Wintershall, OMV, Shell and Engie.

Among the measures envisaged by the amendments to the EU Gas Directive there is unbundling (a ban for one company on gas production and simultaneous possession of a gas pipeline), access of other companies to 50% of the trunk capacity, non-discriminatory tariffs and transparency.

The amendments entered into force on May 23. Some pipelines may receive exceptions to this regulation, but in this case we are only talking about pipelines put into operation before May 23, 2019.

According to Bild, in the bill prepared for consideration by the Bundestag, it was proposed to abandon this date, which would circumvent the requirements of amendments to the EU Gas Directive. According to Bloomberg, the intention of the German parliament was that the date of completion of the project should not be considered the completion date of the construction, but the date of investment in it.

It should be noted that Germany had earlier achieved a softening of the amendments to the Gas Directive, according to which the decision to grant an exception to the gas pipeline is made not by Brussels, but by the state on whose territory the trunk enters the EU. In the case of Nord Stream 2, we are talking about Germany itself.

Shortly after these events, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed the view that the European Commission will not be able to interfere with the implementation of Nord Stream 2, despite the adoption of the EU Gas Directive.

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  • © Anton Vaganov

“The project is almost completely approved. The new Gas Directive gives the European Commission more opportunities to protest (implementation of Nord Stream 2. - RT ). However, it will not impede the project, ”quoted Merkel TASS in May.

Commenting on the consideration of regulatory documents in the Bundestag, Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, noted that leading energy companies should be interested in him.

“If this bill is passed, it will mean that Gazprom will be able to fully use all the volumes of gas that the pipe provides and sell them completely,” the expert said in an interview with RT.

According to him, the prospects for the document considered by the Bundestag are good, since the initiators of its development were representatives of the ruling coalition.

“The bill needs to be adopted, especially since it was developed on the initiative of the ruling coalition, so, I think, the issue is only time,” the expert concluded.

Ukraine against

Shortly before the start of the consideration of the document in the German Parliament in Ukraine, they opposed the easing of EU rules in favor of Nord Stream 2. Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexey Goncharuk called on Germany not to support these amendments.

“As we learned, today, after midnight, the Bundestag is considering a version of the amendments that will allow the German regulatory body to accept deviations from the EU Directive on investment projects“ completed before May 23, 2019. ” Now the directive is mandatory for each member state, ”Goncharuk wrote on Facebook.

The Ukrainian Prime Minister expressed the view that the adoption of the document by the German parliamentarians would violate the consensus between all EU countries and could have far-reaching consequences for European energy security and solidarity between the EU states.

Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka also said that Kiev intends to appeal to the court a possible decision by the FRG authorities to make an exception for Nord Stream 2.

“Such a decision contradicts the decision of the European Commission and the obligations of Germany, and therefore it will certainly be appealed. This may be our complaint or a complaint from Poland and another country, ”Kachka told the publication“ European Truth ”.

In turn, a group of deputies of the German parliament from the Alternative for Germany party issued a statement stating that the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project serves the interests of Berlin and Europe.

According to Konstantin Simonov, director general of the National Energy Security Fund, opponents of Nord Stream 2 are notably active.

“We see that in this regard, opponents of Nord Stream 2 are working, and there are people there who are trying to push through the logic that Russia is a dangerous country, despite Germany’s obvious economic interests,” the expert said in an interview with RT.

However, he is of the opinion that the economic benefits of the project will play a decisive role, but now they are trying to politicize the situation around Nord Stream 2.

“Economic interests absolutely clearly dictate that it is necessary to help gas cooperation with Russia, and the fact that the vote did not pass, shows that there are supporters of active cooperation with Russia who are trying to promote this logic, first of all, the CDU / CSU, there are the Greens that obviously act in a different vein and come from the politicization of this story, ”the expert summed up.