The European Commission strongly disputes that the EU Gas Directive infringed any provision of the Energy Charter Treaty, as Nord Stream 2 AG claims in its investment arbitration case against the EU. In addition, the European Union, represented by the Commission in this dispute, opposes the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal for various reasons.
These details are contained in a written reply on behalf of the European Commission on 5 January to a request made in October 2021 by several MEPs in connection with Nord Stream 2 AG’s dispute against the EU, in particular regarding the amount of compensation requested by Nord Stream 2, which speaks of a potential loss of more than 8 billion euros, announced on Thursday the MEP Eugen Tomac, one of the initiators of the request.
The EU Gas Directive (2019/692) was adopted by an overwhelming majority in Parliament in April 2019. The document clarified that Directive 2009/73/ EC2 on common rules for the internal market in natural gas applies to import pipelines, such as Nord Stream 2, according to Agerpres.
Nord Stream 2 AG claims that by adopting the 2019 Directive, the EU violated several provisions of the Energy Charter Treaty and, on 26 September 2019, initiated arbitration proceedings against the European Union under Article 26 (4) (b) of that Treaty, challenging the application of Directive 2019/692 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019.
According to the European Commission’s response, the arbitration panel decided to assess whether or not the dispute claimed by Nord Stream 2 was substantiated. For this reason, the complainant has not yet quantified the compensation it could claim. All key documents submitted in the arbitration proceedings are made available to the public on the website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the reply also states.
Nord Stream 2 AG, wholly owned by Gazprom, is responsible for planning, constructing and operating the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which aims to double the amount of natural gas delivered from Russia to Germany.
“In the face of increasingly threatening tensions from Russia, I believe that the EU must be very firm in the Nord Stream 2 case and not give in to pressure from Moscow,” said MEP Eugen Tomac.