• European Parliament passes report critical of Nord Stream
  • 08.07.2008

The European Parliament has passed a report critical of the Nord Stream gas pipeline plan.

 

The report was prepared by Law and Justice (PiS) MEP Marcin Libicki and was passed by an overwhelming majority of 542 for just 60 against.

The parliament introduced changes to the report, but its general thrust remains critical of the natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is to be built at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

 

The MEPs do not want Nord Stream to be built without a positive assessment of its influence on the environment.

 

However, the MEPs rejected the most radical point of the report, which said that the construction would not begin unless all the countries around the Baltic Sea agreed to it.

 

The author of the report expressed hope that the negative vote will be taken into account by the European Commission, which supports the project. The MEPs 'no' to the construction of the pipeline is not binding, but the increased political pressure might make going ahead with the investment difficult.

Poland has been against constructing the gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe on the bottom of the Baltic, because it would bypass the traditional transit countries such as Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia. (mo)