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Ecologists call on Swedish court to block construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

In May, ClientEarth "submitted a complaint to the Finnish administrative court in Vaasa to halt the construction of a 374 kilometer-long section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline" in Finland

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. The ClientEarth environmental law organization has requested Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court block the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Sweden’s territorial waters, the organization said in a statement published on its website.

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Construction of Nord Stream 2 offshore segment starts in Finland

"ClientEarth has filed a complaint to Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court to halt the construction of a 510 kilometer-long section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Swedish waters," the statement reads. "The environmental lawyers argue that the construction documents are incomplete and inaccurate, as they fail to consider the impact the pipeline will have on marine wildlife in the Baltic Sea," the organization said, adding that "the construction of the highly contentious pipeline was approved by the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation on June 7, 2018."

In May, ClientEarth "submitted a complaint to the Finnish administrative court in Vaasa to halt the construction of a 374 kilometer-long section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline" in Finland.

Nord Stream 2 project

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is scheduled to be put into operation in late 2019. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The pipeline, set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore, is expected to connect the Russian resource base with European customers. The total project cost of the Nord Stream 2 is estimated at €9.9 bln.

The gas pipeline will not cross transit countries such as Ukraine, Belarus and Poland, running through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

Russia and Germany have many times stressed that Nord Stream 2 was only a commercial project and was not politically motivated. However, in April, German Chancellor Angela Merkel mentioned some political factors related to the project’s implementation. According to her, gas transit through Ukraine should continue even after the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is built. Russian President Vladimir Putin said later that the project’s implementation did not imply the end of the Ukrainian gas transit if it proved economically feasible.

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