BERLIN, June 5. /TASS/. The German government rejects extraterritorial sanctions by the United States as Berlin’s position on Nord Stream 2 has not changed, a representative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy told a briefing on Friday.

The official was commenting on the bill a group of US senators submitted to the Senate. The document implies expansion of sanctions against the gas pipeline.

"We are following the development of the situation around Nord Stream 2 in the USA, but we do not comment on this," she said.

"Our principled position regarding extraterritorial sanctions is also clear: we reject them," the representative of the ministry added.

On Thursday, a group of US senators submitted a bill that would expand the US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. According to Bloomberg news agency, the new sanctions target the insurance companies that work with the two Russian vessels, the Akademik Cherskiy and Fortuna, on the completion of the project.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five countries — Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, thus bypassing transit countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic states. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. Gazprom's European partners in the project are Germany’s Wintershall and Uniper, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and Royal Dutch Shell.