EU partners put Poland in an awkward position in front of Gazprom
Denmark is becoming a territory where it is better not to lay strategic gas pipelines.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports that energy commentator Yuri Barsukov writes about this in Kommersant.
“Denmark is gradually gaining a reputation as a country through whose territory it is better not to lay large and strategically important gas pipelines. Following Nord Stream 2, which the country’s authorities did not give permission to lay in its exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea for more than two years, problems overtook the Baltic Pipe project,” writes Barsukov.
According to him, this gas pipeline was supposed to bring 7 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Norwegian shelf to Poland, which theoretically would allow Warsaw not to purchase Russian gas after October 2022, when the long-term contract with Gazprom expires. The publication emphasizes that the project, which was announced as a means of ridding Eastern Europe of gas dependence on Russia, enjoyed the full political support of the European Commission and received European subsidies.
“But mice crossed the path of the project. Danish authorities, concerned about the potential harm from the construction of the gas pipeline to dormice, wood mice and bats, revoked the construction permit on June 2 until the project operator conducts new consultations and environmental studies,” the expert recalls.
The whole thing could take eight months, industry sources say, and the pipeline might not be ready by autumn 2022, raising the prospect of awkward gas purchase negotiations with Gazprom for Poland, in which Warsaw would be in a weaker position.
The observer draws attention to the fact that at the end of May, the Polish authorities refused to comply with the decision of the EU Court to close one of the country's largest coal mines, Turov, in Bogatyna, located on the border with the Czech Republic and Germany.
“The lawsuit was filed by the Czech Republic and supported by Germany: both countries are unhappy with the negative impact of the mine on the environment. And since in reality forcing Poland to close it through official legal procedures within the EU would be extremely difficult and time-consuming, Germany could use unofficial leverage by blocking an energy project that is important for Poland.
The dispute over the mine is just a special case of wider differences between Poland and its western EU neighbors on environmental issues. Thus, Warsaw turned out to be the only country of the union that has not yet joined plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This episode is yet another confirmation that the EU is still not the monolithic structure it tries to look like, and internal contradictions sometimes cannot be smoothed over even with an anti-Russian agenda,” sums up Barsukov.
EU partners put Poland in an awkward position in front of Gazprom.