MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Nord Stream 2 AG, which lost the case in a German court about the exclusion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from the application of the EU Gas Directive in the German court, must itself decide on further steps, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

"It is a corporate issue. After all, the company itself must decide on further actions," the Kremlin spokesman said.

On Wednesday, a German district court in Dusseldorf dismissed the complaint filed by Nord Stream 2 AG company and refused to exclude the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from the application of the renewed EU Gas Directive.

Earlier, Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the project, tried to challenge the decision of the German Federal Network Agency.

In May 2020, the German regulator denied the operator’s request dated January 10, 2020, to exclude the pipeline from the application of the updated EU Gas Directive. The federal agency was guided by the fact that the gas pipeline allegedly did not meet the required criterion - it was not completed by the required date, that is, by May 23, 2019.

In turn, Nord Stream 2 AG noted that the concept of "project completion" should be considered broader than simply from the point of view of construction and technical processes. According to the company, one should take into account the fact that by the time the new rules came into force, billions of dollars in investments had already been made, taking into account the previous legal situation. The German agency rejected this argument, and the Dusseldorf court has taken its side.

The court's decision has nothing to do with the construction process of Nord Stream 2, which should be completed this year.