European Political Strategy Centre Strategic Note - Nord Stream 2 - Divide et Impera Again - 2017
Year
2017
Summary
The question of Europe's energy security has risen in importance in recent years, especially following the major disruption of gas supplies caused by the January 2009 Ukraine-Russia dispute, and even more so given the political and security tensions that followed Russia's annexation of Crimea. Indeed, Russia remains the EU's main supplier of oil, gas, coal and nuclear fuel - even if its energy sector has been affected by the EU-imposed sanctions regime. In this context, Gazprom's `Nord Stream 2' pipeline project, aims to expand gas supplies from Russia to Germany, largely following the route of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on the bed of the Baltic Sea, and bypassing transit countries, such as Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.