REUTERS
Germany blocks the adoption of the Third Gas Directive.
Poland's Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Jacek Czaputowicz said on Monday, October 29, that disputes between Poland and Germany over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be on the agenda of intergovernmental consultations to be held in Warsaw on Friday.
Warsaw will host Polish-German intergovernmental consultations on November 2, Radio Poland's Ukrainian Service reported.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Warsaw to meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The previous Polish-German intergovernmental consultations took place in Berlin in June 2016.
According to Czaputowicz, the European Commission represents a certain pro-European position, considering that the Third Gas Directive should apply to Nord Stream 2. "This would make this project, which we criticize, unprofitable from the economic point of view. Germany is blocking the adoption of this directive, working for its own interest," he said.
"Germany is acting against the EU position if we assume that the European Commission represents this position," he added.
Read alsoPolish president slams Nord Stream 2 in Berlin visit
Czaputowicz also says Warsaw largely agrees with German's policy. "It is, for example, about the position with regard to Russia, the need to maintain sanctions against Russia for aggression in Ukraine. We hope for good talks and close cooperation between our states in the near future," he said.
The quick adoption by EU countries of amendments to the Gas Directive on Nord Stream 2 is important to Poland. New regulations should clearly indicate that the offshore parts of gas pipelines in the EU should be subject to the provisions of the EU's Third Energy Package. The introduction of these changes could reduce the profitability of the Russian-German gas pipeline. In this issue, time is important, because the construction of the pipeline has already begun.
Russian Gazprom announced that after the construction of Nord Stream 2, Ukraine's transit might be completely stopped, while the Ukrainian side would have to justify the "economic viability of a new gas transit contract."
UNIAN memo. The Third Energy Package was adopted on July 13, 2009. It consists of five components, two of them directives: Regulation (EC) No. 713/2009 establishing an Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators; Regulation (EC) No. 714/2009 on conditions of access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity; Regulation (EC) No. 715/2009 on conditions for access to the natural gas transmission networks, repealing the previous regulation; the Third Electricity Directive (2009/72/EC) concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity; and the Third Gas Directive (2009/73/EC) concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas.