The European Commission has opposed Russia gas monopoly Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2, which will transport up to 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from Russia to Europe across the Baltic Sea, arguing that it will increase the bloc’s reliance on Russia. Under the amended directive, gas pipelines entering the EU from non-EU countries will now be covered by EU law. The US and some European states, which have opposed the pipeline, have applauded the amendment which targets Nord Stream 2.
“I understand that Nord Stream-2 has applied for a derogation from the amended gas directive under Art. 49a, and the regulator is obliged to make a decision by May 24, 2020, at the latest. To be eligible for a derogation Nord Stream 2 would have to be deemed ‘completed’ before May 23, 2019,” Katja Yafimava, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told New Europe on 26 March, arguing that Nord Stream 2 has a case as the amended German energy act, which transposed the amended gas directive into German law, appears to allow for several interpretations of ‘completed’ thus making it possible for the German regulator to deem Nord Stream 2 being ‘completed’.
“Notably, the German parliament’s report, accompanying the energy act amendment, contains a special declaration, which states that the amended Directive ‘privileges existing investments’ to protect legitimate expectations through derogations under Art. 49a, adding that account must be taken of all the circumstances of the case when determining whether a pipeline in question has been completed before the Directive’s entry into force,” Yafimava said, explaining that it is possible that the German regulator could consider it ‘completed’, given that the investment had been made prior to the amended directive’s entry into force.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/in-the-pipeline-german-decision-on-exempting-nord-stream-2-from-amended-eu-directive/