BRUSSELS, July 25. /TASS/. The EU council will start discussing the mandate of the European Commission (EC) for holding talks with Russia on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in September, a source in Brussels said on Tuesday.

"The European Commission presented its draft mandate to [Union] countries. The Council will start talks on this document in September," the source said.

The European Commission requested the mandate to hold talks with Russia on Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from the European Union member-states on June 9. The EC presented the draft paper to the EU Council on June 26.

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.