The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reacted to the German Ministry of Economy's completion of the analysis of the reliability of gas supplies through the Nord Stream-2 pipeline. The Ministry said that the involvement of the European Commission is the key to the process of certification of the pipeline.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this at a briefing in Kiev on Wednesday. According to the minister, Ukraine is upset by the decision of the German Ministry of Economy.
"There is already a position of Naftogaz on this issue. We will bring this position to our German partners. We will ask them and work with them to ensure that decisions on Nord Stream-2 are not taken in a hurry, without careful analysis and study," Dmytro Kuleba said.
"But I want to emphasize that no matter how fast the German regulator's actions, the key is to involve the European Commission in this process. The ultimate goal is the application of the Third Energy Package to the operation of Nord Stream-2," the minister stressed.
It should be noted that the head of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko expressed regret that the German Ministry of Economy and Energy did not consult with Ukraine when making the decision to certify the Russian gas pipeline "Nord Stream-2".
He said this on his Facebook page, notes "European Pravda".
"The Ministry notes the list of countries with which the relevant consultations were carried out. Among them, there is no Ukraine. This is very sad. Ukraine is one of the main transporters of gas to the European Union. We can tell how the certification of the operator of Nord Stream-2 in the current conditions, that is, without a real separation of ownership from Gazprom, without real access of third parties to export pipelines from Russia to the EU, creates a critical threat to the security of gas supplies to Germany and other EU countries," he said.
Meanwhile, the United States also expressed its reaction to the situation with "Nord Stream-2. According to Amos Hochstein, senior adviser to the U.S. State Department, the Russian main pipeline "Nord Stream-2" will not be launched until March 2022, and the German leadership should get Russia to increase gas supplies via existing routes, reports "Business Capital."
"Then it will have two months for the European Commission to issue an opinion on the legality and the fact that the pipeline complies with the Third Energy Package and the gas directive, which will take another two months," the State Department official added.
He stressed that, therefore, there is no discussion of gas deliveries through Nord Stream-2 until March. And as soon as this becomes clear, Hochstein specified, it is necessary to move on to the next stage of the negotiations on the increase of supplies to Europe this winter by the existing routes.
It should be reminded that on October 26 the German Ministry of Economy announced that it had completed the analysis of the reliability of gas supplies via "Nord Stream-2" and passed its results to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). Gazprom announced the full completion of Nord Stream-2 construction on September 10.
