ST. PETERSBURG, September 21. /TASS/. Finland holds a very meaningful position and does not politicize the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

"Our partners from Finland hold a very meaningful stance in respect of the Nord Stream 2 project. Treatment of this project as a normal technical project is a meaningful feature of this position," Medvedev said. Finland pays special attention to compliance with environment protection principles, he added.

"This is exactly what is needed for this project to take place. To treat it as a commercial project, as a business project, rather than to politicize the project and the idea," Medvedev said.

Finland is concerned only over environmental aspects of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told TASS.

"Finland’s position remains unchanged. For us, it (the construction of the gas pipeline - TASS) is a question of the use of our economic waters and a question of obtaining the environmental permit. Work on these matters is proceeding routinely. Since the pipe will not reach us, it is a purely environmental matter for us," he stressed.

"Denmark and Sweden will take their own decisions on that matter. But I would like to add that the European Union is yet to decide if the gas pipeline is conformity with the rules of the EU Energy Union," he noted.

Nord Stream-2 project

Nord Stream-2 is an international project for the construction of a gas pipeline that will run across the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany. According to forecasts, domestic gas production in the European Union is expected to nearly half in the next 20 years. The new pipeline will make it possible to satisfy growing gas demands as gas supplies to Europe will go up by 55 billion cubic meter a year.

The new pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, will traverse economic zones and territorial water of five countries, namely Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.

The project operator is Switzerland’s Nord Stream 2 AG, owned by Russian Gazprom. The construction is to kick off in 2018 to be through in late 2019.