Nord Stream 2 legally not covered by EU Third Energy Package — Russian diplomat

BRUSSELS, December 24. /TASS/. The Nord Stream 2 project is legally not covered by the European Union’s Third Energy Package, Russia's Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told TASS on Thursday.

Speaking about the effort to promote scrapping of the project made by a number of East-European member-states of the EU at the latest summit of the union on December 17-18 in Brussels, he said: "The participants of the consortium on the Nord Stream 2 project are convinced and are ready to establish it to the satisfaction of any court that "the third package" may not be applied to Nord Stream 2 a priori." "The issue is about a gas pipeline, which has its start outside the EU and finishes at a certain point x within the territory of the EU," he added.

On September 4, Gazprom, BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV and Shell signed a shareholder agreement for construction of a gas transportation system Nord Stream 2, an export-oriented natural gas pipeline with total annual capacity of 55 bln cubic meters from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The project will be implemented by the joint venture Nord Stream AG where Gazprom holds a 51% stake, E.ON and Wintershall - 15.5% each and ENGIE and Gasunie - 9% each.