GERMANY, EU SHOULD RESPOND TO SANCTIONS ON NORD STREAM 2

Germany and the European Union (EU) should consider a response to US plans to expand sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Klaus Ernst, head of the Bundestag Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy, told the Russian news agency TASS late on June 5, 2020.

"If this does not stop, then we will need to consider serious protective measures. For example, penalties for natural gas from the US are possible," he said. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five countries — Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, thus bypassing transit countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic states.

According to Ernst, US actions in this matter should be "no longer understood as an act of friendship, but they constitute interference in the sovereignty of Germany and the EU."

On Thursday, a group of US senators submitted a bill that would expand the US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. According to Bloomberg news agency, the new sanctions target the insurance companies that work with the two Russian vessels, the Akademik Cherskiy and Fortuna, for the completion of the project.