EU Gas Directive Amendments 'Unacceptable': NS2

The European Commission's plan to change the Gas Directive with restrictions on gas pipelines that cross national borders is unacceptable, according to an executive at Nord Stream 2.

The chief commercial officer for the Russian-backed pipeline Reinhard Ontyd said May 15 during a panel session at the Flame Conference in Amsterdam that attempts such as this to produce project-specific laws deterred investors, by changing the regime when the project had already been underway for some time.

Lawyer Ana Stanic said that the European Commission had created uncertainty where there had been none, setting up a legal conflict over states' territorial sovereignty between the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, and the new proposal. Laws are normally created to solve problems, not to create them, she said. No EC panellists were there to provide an alternative view point.

Separately, the Polish anti-trust agency last week declared it is seeking to end the project, warning the five western companies financing it that they risked fines if they continued to support Gazprom. The companies involved have not yet said what their response would be.