Denmark refers Russian gas pipe issue to Brussels

Denmark will refer to the European Commission the thorny issue of Russia’s application for permission lay a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. 

Denmark can make it more difficult for Russia to lay the Nord Stream gas pipe in the Baltic Sea, but cannot completely prevent it.

The government will now send Russia’s application for permission to lay the pipe to the European Commission in Brussels.

The opposition Social Democrats and Social Liberal (Radikale Venstre) parties as well as the Danish People’s Party supported the move to refer the issue to the EU after the commission agreed to take on the task of responding to the Russian request, reports newspaper Politiken.

The government has also secured parliamentary support for a law change which would give Denmark more geopolitical and national security policy leeway should the case be returned.

But Denmark’s realistic chances of, it wishes to do so, blocking the construction of the Russian pipeline, which will run from the Russian city of Vyborg near the Finnish border through the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in Germany, are low, reports the newspaper.

“We can make life difficult for Russia, which would be a clear signal to send from a Danish point of view. But it will probably be difficult to prevent the gas pipe from coming,” Social Democrat foreign policy spokesperson Nick Hækkerup told Politiken.

Source,
 https://www.thelocal.dk