How could the German bureaucracy, not Solz, delay Nord Stream 2

German Chancellor Olaf Soltz – under pressure from the United States, which wants to shut down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline due to Russian aggression against Ukraine – may quietly outsource the project to the country’s bureaucracy, according to Bloomberg.

Before gas can flow through the pipeline to the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the German regulator and the EU Commission, two institutions whose speed is unknown, must give the green light.

Certification by the German Federal Network Service (Bundesnetzagentur) must be subject to EU verification before final signature by Germany.

This transition from one service to another can take six to eight months, the same publication emphasizes.

The approval clock stopped in mid-November, however, when the network service froze the process to allow pipeline manager Nord Stream 2 AG, which owns Russia’s Gazprom PJSC, to set up a German company to comply with local and EU regulations. regulations.

The decision sent European gas prices soaring, indicating how much Europe is betting on the potential for bigger Russian supplies.

Nord Stream 2 is planned to double the capacity of the existing submarine route from Russian gas fields to Europe.

The process, which began in September, can only continue when Gazprom complies with its Nord Stream 2 operations, according to Bloomberg.

The German agency has so far had no indication of when the necessary documents will arrive, a spokesman said.

Scholz, a lawyer and veteran in German politics for 40 years, knows how slow the wheels of the country’s bureaucracy can turn.

In relation to Nord Stream 2, it can work to Soltz’s advantage: The longer the certification process takes, the less pressure he will feel to intervene politically.

The US intelligence service, according to Bloomberg, estimates that Russia could invade Ukraine with up to 175,000 troops in early 2022, possibly in late January or several months before the Federal Bureau of Investigation is expected to complete its discussions.

That gave Scholz a breath of fresh air during his first week in power. And like Angela Merkel, whose tactics he has been studying for years, Solz is known for his ability not to succumb to pressure, the same article points out.

A German government official has denied US claims that Berlin signaled to Washington that it would stop Nord Stream 2 if Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

There is no need for such reassurance at this point, the official said, on condition of anonymity, because the talks are confidential: As long as the fate of the pipeline lies with regulators, the Scholz government has no mechanism to intervene.

This is not the first time the US has tried to put pressure on Germany over Nord Stream 2.

But since the Washington-Berlin conflict was resolved in July, there is a sense that the Biden government may be looking for another way – such as the current crisis in Ukraine – to wipe out the project once and for all, the official said.

President Joe Biden faces bipartisan criticism for waiving sanctions on the pipeline’s parent company earlier this year. Lawmakers continue to call on Biden to impose sanctions on the pipeline, especially given the accumulation of Russian troops.

Biden and Soltz spoke on Friday. US Treasury Secretary Janet Gellen also spoke with new German Finance Minister Christian Lindner about ways in which the US could “impose significant costs on the Russian economy” if tensions between Ukraine and Russia worsen.

While transatlantic relations have thawed compared to the Trump era, they remain points of pressure, fueling the view in Berlin that Germany must first and foremost look after its own interests.

And here Scholz agrees with his predecessor. As vice chancellor, he saw Merkel’s long battle with the United States over Nord Stream 2.

There is no indication so far that Scholz will break with Merkel. In fact, while some in Merkel’s Christian Democrats were skeptical of the pipeline, Scholz’s Social Democrats support it almost unequivocally.

One wild card, however, is the Green Party, Scholz’s second-largest partner in the tripartite coalition. In the past, Greens co-chair Annalena Baerbock has called for an end to Nord Stream 2 – but since becoming Germany’s first female foreign minister, she has remained largely silent on the issue.

Surveys have shown that most Germans approve of the pipeline, but that Green supporters are the least enthusiastic.

The other co-leader of the Greens, Robert Habeck, recently suggested that the situation in Ukraine should be part of the assessments for the certification – something that officials of the Ministry of Economy he now leads reject.

It should also be noted that Scholz has a long history with the country’s biggest supporter of Nord Stream 2, Gerhard Schroeder – the Social Democrat chancellor of Germany before the Merkel era.

Today, Schroeder is chairman of Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft and Nord Stream AG, and a personal friend of Putin, but is still keenly interested in his former ally in the party.

Watch from the Bundestag VIP gallery as Scholz was sworn in on December 8, the same post concludes.