Germany has stopped the certification process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in reaction to Russia’s recognition of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk in east Ukraine, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has announced.
Germany’s energy minister, Robert Habeck, on Tuesday morning instructed the withdrawal of a security-of-supply assessment granted under Angela Merkel’s tenure, which is required to authorise the pipeline between Russia and Germany.
“This may sound technical, but it is the necessary administrative step without which the pipeline cannot be certified,” Scholz said at a press conference in Berlin at midday. “Without this certification Nord Stream 2 cannot go into operation”.
Scholz said he has commissioned a new assessment into Germany’s energy security in light of geopolitical developments in east Ukraine.
The German leader described Putin’s recognition of the Russian-controlled territories as a “grave breach” of international law that broke with decades of agreements between Russia and the west. “The situation today is fundamentally different,” he said.
Scholz’s announcement was welcomed in Kyiv, where the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said suspending the pipeline’s certification was “a morally, politically and practically correct step in the current circumstances”.
“True leadership means tough decisions in difficult times,” Kuleba tweeted. “Germany’s move proves just that.”
The decision drew condemnation and threats from Moscow, where the former Russian president and deputy chair of Russia’s security council Dmitry Medvedev tweeted: “Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2.000 for 1.000 cubic metres of natural gas!”
First announced in 2015, the $11bn (£8.3bn) pipeline owned by Russia’s state-backed energy giant Gazprom has been built to carry gas from western Siberia to Lubmin in Germany’s north-east, doubling the existing capacity of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and keeping 26m German homes warm at an affordable price.
The construction of the pipeline was completed last September and its operator says it is already filled with gas and ready to go into use, pending permission from German authorities.
Scholz, a Social Democrat who was sworn in as German chancellor last December, skirted around the Nord Stream 2 debate in the first weeks of his tenure, with his spokespeople initially sticking to the line that the pipeline was a purely commercial project.
As tensions heightened on Ukraine’s border with Russia, Scholz said that “all options are on the table” when it came to sanctions against a possible incursion, but refrained from naming Nord Stream – until now.
Even though German attitudes towards Russia are ambivalent, not just among the wider population but among most of the parties in the Bundestag, Putin’s actions on Monday were widely condemned across the political spectrum.
The leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, called the Russian president “a warmonger with no inhibitions” against whom the west had to show a united front.
“Our outstretched hand has been batted away,” said Lars Klingbeil, the SPD’s co-leader and a former protege of the former chancellor and Gazprom lobbyist Gerhard Schröder. “Putin has crossed a line.”
The leadership of the leftwing party Die Linke also issued a statement condemning Russia’s recognition of the self-proclaimed republics: “This is certainly not a ‘peace mission’, it violates international and Ukraine’s territorial integrity and heightens the risk of a great war in Europe.”
Only the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) struck a different note. While its co-chair Tino Chrupalla said he saw Russian behaviour “absolutely in critical terms”, his party rejected any sanctions against Russia as harmful to Germany’s own interests.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is an important project for both the Russian and German economies. Gas and oil make up more than 50% of Russia’s exports.
In Germany, about a quarter of the country’s energy supply relies on gas, of which half is provided by Russia. While Europe’s largest economy is planning to wean itself off fossil fuels and achieve carbon neutrality in 25 years’ time, gas remains a vital bridging technology on that path.
Asked on Tuesday how he sought to end Germany’s reliance on Russian gas in the medium term, Scholz declined to give precise answers. The challenge of diversifying energy supplies was a “major European task”, he said. Original plans for Nord Stream 2 included 90% of gas piped into Germany being distributed on to eastern and southern Europe.
Norway and the Netherlands, the two other major suppliers of natural gas to Germany, have already signalled that they won’t be able to significantly increase their supplies. Since Germany does not have its own import terminal for liquified gas, which is transported by ship rather than through pipelines, there are also questions about whether demand can be met through emergency supplies from the US or Qatar.
Habeck, of the Green party, said on Tuesday his country’s energy needs were guaranteed to be met, but that he expected the conflict in eastern Ukraine to lead to a further rise in gas prices.
