Former President of the European Council and leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) Donald Tusk criticized the outgoing German government’s decision on the Beixi 2 natural gas pipeline connecting Germany and Russia.
“Angela Merkel can do nothing about the lobbying power of German businessmen,” Tusk said on Sunday (November 28). According to him, “Nord Stream 2 is the biggest mistake” of the outgoing German Chancellor.
Nord Stream 2 is a natural gas pipeline that directly connects Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea. The purpose of the project is to bypass Ukraine as a transit country.
Tusk participated in a conference on the future of Europe in Gdansk and mentioned natural gas projects from the perspective of the European Union rather than Poland’s national interest.
“From the perspective of EU interests, Nord Stream 2 is a bad project,” he said.
It is not common for Tusk to publicly use critical language against the outgoing CDU/CSU-led government. For many years, Merkel has been the most influential domestic leader in the EPP family. Without Merkel’s support, it would be impossible for Tusk to be elected as the president of the European Council in 2014 and the EPP leader in 2019.
In Gdansk, Tusk said that Merkel was “powerless” against the interests of the German business lobby.
“She admitted this in one of our conversations,” he said.
According to Tusk, strategically, whether Germany is ready to continue its energy cooperation with Russia is a question, “this is also one of Merkel’s biggest mistakes.”
Tusk not only leads the work of EPP, he is preparing to resign from next year. He recently returned to Poland to lead the largest opposition party, the Civic Platform Party, and is also a member of the EPP.
In challenging Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) Party, Tusk tried to be more credible than the government when criticizing Merkel’s policies on Russian gas supply.
“I do everything I can to make the EU independent of Russia’s natural gas supply. For example, by creating an energy alliance, this is a mechanism for joint purchase of natural gas.”
The Energy Alliance Strategy is a project of the European Commission aimed at changing European energy supply. It was launched in February 2015 under the initiative of the Polish Prime Minister Tusk at the time. It aims to provide European Union countries in Central and Eastern Europe with safe, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy.
Roll call and humiliation
He also publicly named the member states that are not interested in the European Council’s “joint opposition to the construction of Beixi No. 2”: the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary. In addition, the Czech Republic emphasizes its neutrality in the conflict, Tusk said.
In the United States, criticism of Beixi 2 is also increasing, and the United States may agree to impose new sanctions on the pipeline project. In early November, Republican Senator Jim Risch (Jim Risch), a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, stated that Congress “will continue to promote legislation to protect our allies and interests in Europe, while also cracking down on the Kremlin’s malicious influence projects”.
Criticism from the European Union is also increasing, including in Germany, a new center-left coalition is about to take over the government of Angela Merkel.
“Nord Stream 2 has become a suitcase without handles: hard to throw away; hard to carry”, wrote Earlier this year, Jonathan Hackenbroich and Kadri Liikl from the Berlin office of the European Council for External Relations (ECFR).
Stefan Meister of German think tank DGAP warn “Berlin is supporting a project that will damage its credibility”, and Daniel Gros from CEPS in Brussels, debate The same goes for: “Therefore, the German government should stop defending this project, and Europe should establish its own supplementary strategic natural gas reserves. Then everyone can forget the pipeline at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.”
In recent days, the German Internet Agency Bundesnetzagentur has decided to temporarily suspend the Nord Stream 2 certification process.
Piotr Maciej Kaczyński is a freelance writer and trainer of the EU decision-making process. He contributed this article to EURACTIV Bulgaria.
