On Friday, 9 June 2017,  WWF European Policy Office, WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme, OCEANA Europe and the Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB), have jointly submitted a letter to  Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete(DG ENER / DG CLIMA) and  Commissioner Karmenu Vella(DG ENV / DG MARE), expressing our concerns with the proposed Nord Stream II gas pipeline project and proposing to include an environmental clause to the anticipated Intergovernmental Agreement between the EU and the Russian Federation on the aforementioned project.

Our main concerns are connected to a contradiction of the proposed project with EU commitments under the the Paris Agreement, drawbacks and gaps identified by environmental NGOs in environmental impact assessment (EIA) process and documentation and,  efforts by the Nord Stream II AG to weaken Russian nature conservation legislation to allow the landfall part of the pipeline to cross highly vulnerable Nature Protected Areas of the international importance designated under the Ramsar and Helsinki Conventions.

Our suggestion to the European Commission  is therefore that should such Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on the Nord Stream II Project be concluded, it should  reflect relevant environmental and nature conservation provisions as a part of transparency principle in pipeline operation, as outlined by the EC.

Further background information on Baltic NGOs monitoring after the ongoing development of the Nord Stream II Project can be found here.