MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. The European Commission’s actions are hampering the implementation of mutually beneficial projects between Russia and the European Union, and the Nord Stream-2 project is a vivid example of that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
"The European Union commissioners tend to think they are the bosses and, hence, can ignore national governments," he said at a meeting with students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
"This is what happening around Nord Stream-2. There is an official document from the European Commission’s Legal Service that this project in no way violates the European Union’s existing rule and requires no further coordination. The European Commission however says, ‘Well, yes, our Legal Service said that but we think the other way,’" the Russian top diplomat noted.
"It is an example demonstrating that Brussels’ actions can be seen as an obstacle on the path of the implementation of mutually beneficial projects," Lavrov stressed.
The 1,220 kilometer-long Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline will traverse the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The capacity of each of its two threads will be 27.5 billion cubic meters a year. The new pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, will double its capacity. The overall cost of the project is 9.9 billion euro.