According to Mykhailo Gonchar, the situation in the EU is essentially different in comparison with 2014 with regard to the South Stream.
"Then, it was more about the land part of the South Stream in the territory of the EU Member States, but here it is a question of extending the Third Energy Package to exclusive economic maritime zones. Why did resistance appear among European institutions? Only the European Parliament takes a clear and unambiguous position "against" this epic with Russian "Streams". And the EU Council Legal Service found the know-how, invented that the waters of the Baltic Sea within free economic zones are governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982. That is, supposedly no additional regulation is needed there, and, accordingly, the Third Energy Package at the bottom of the Baltic Sea is also not needed. And this splits the European Commission ", - the expert said.
According to him, the European Commission has now taken the position of washing hands.
"I always say that regardless of whether the Nord Stream 2 is constructed or not, it has already done its job to strengthen the split within the EU framework. If you look now, Nord Stream 2 is supported by only four EU countries: Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands. The rest of the Member States, at least 10 of them, are strongly opposed and this is a well-known group of ten which wrote in 2016 an appeal to (the head of the European Commission - Ed.) Juncker, to Heads of States and Governments. Further 9 Member States do not welcome this project, but they do not take an active position of resistance. That is, there is no consensus, and, therefore, the project should not be implemented, but it is implemented. This is a systemic challenge for the EU, which Russia is using",Mykhailo Gonchar said.
The expert confirmed that the position of the European Commission prevented the implementation of the South Stream, and Russia then abolished it.
"I look at the current situation in retrospective and see that Russia has made some sort of maneuver. Yes, it abolished the South Stream, accused the European Commission in a non-constructive approach that blocks Russian gas access to the European market, but they are so good and they wanted to improve the state with gas in Europe. But I think it was a certain element of the game in the giveaway. That is, the cancellation occurred in December 2014. And in 2015, two new projects were actually proposed instead of one: Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream, which in total in terms of their capacities more than a separate South Stream. The South Stream should be 63 billion cubic meters of capacity, but these both projects will have 86 bcm. That is, if it was not possible to implement one project, then it was divided into two ones and are being now implemented separately", - Mykhailo Gonchar said.
According to him, it is important to understand that Russia was able to convert its defeat on South Stream into two potentially new projects.
"This point is underestimated both by us and by the European Union. Therefore, the situation here is that the problem is related to Russia's excessive activity in Europe in the gas sector. And it's not so much about the issue of the gas business, but the issue of creating additional opportunities for influence and deformation of the EU within the EU", - the expert said.
In his turn, the co-director of foreign policy and international security programs at the Razumkov Center, Oleksii Melnyk, suggests that the construction of the Nord Stream 2 could theoretically be halted by amending the EU gas directives, which are currently being discussed in the EU.
