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May: EU Council may return to Nord Stream-2 issue in June

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019

© EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER

MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. The subject of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline may be on the agenda of the EU Council’s meeting scheduled for June, that is according to a statement British Prime Minister Teresa May made speaking in the House of Commons of the British Parliament on Monday.

When asked by one the MPs if she managed to recommend Germany during the last week session of the EU Council to revise its attitude to the pipeline, May said:

"The subject of the pipeline Nord Stream-2 was not raised in the European Union Council. We have, of course, asked in terms of further measures that might be taken by the EU… We asked the EU foreign ministers to look at issues that might be addressed in June," she said.

Read also

Putin: Nord Stream-2 not an alternative to Ukrainian transit route

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The new pipeline will double the capacity of the first stretch and will basically follow its route.

Earlier this month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Germany views the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction project as an exclusively economic one and does not consider possible to link it to the case of former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergei Skripal. Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. They are currently in the hospital in critical condition.

The ex-colonel was earlier convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and exchanged for Russian intelligence officers.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union. On March 14, she accused Russia of an "unlawful use of force" against the United Kingdom and announced that London would expel 23 Russian diplomats and take other restrictive measures. Russia rejected all accusations. In retaliation to the UK’s steps, 23 British diplomats were expelled, the British consulate general in the city of St. Petersburg was closed and the British Council had to shut down its operations in Russia.

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