No decision on the certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is expected before mid-2022, the German energy regulator said today, suspending the process this autumn due to a legal hurdle.
The decision to allow the opening of this pipeline between Russia and Germany “will not be taken in the first half” of 2022, said Jochen Homan, president of the German Federal Network Service, in a press conference.
In mid-November, the agency suspended the project certification process until Nord Stream, based in Switzerland, set up a company under German law, a condition that is required to obtain a license.
“Nord Stream AG has informed us that it has set up this new company,” said Jochen Homan.
But the certification process will not be repeated until “the relevant documents are delivered to us in a way that can be verified,” he said.
The green light of the German authorities is one of the last stages before the operation of the pipeline, the construction of which has been completed. The European Union will also then have to give its approval.
Berlin had said that the suspension of the certification was not of a political nature, as this pipeline is at the center of geopolitical tensions, mainly between Russia and Ukraine.
Nord Stream will mainly have to prove that it has transferred “the necessary assets and human resources” to its German branch, as the regulator ruled in November.
The approval should then be submitted to the European Commission.
The pipeline, which will allow Russian gas to circulate in the European network, is now at the center of a diplomatic confrontation between Germany and Russia.
The new German government, led by Social Democrat Olaf Solz, recently warned Moscow that a “suspension” of the plan could occur in the event of a new military escalation in Ukraine, while Westerners fear a Russian invasion of the country.
Tensions escalated yesterday, Wednesday, following the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Germany. Berlin was reacting to the life sentence of a Russian national for the murder in Berlin of a Chechen dissident in 2019, which was ordered, according to a German court, by Moscow.
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