EU officials have been seeking ways to delay or halt Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, fearing the initiative will strengthen Russia’s dominance of the European gas market and help the state-controlled energy group bypass Ukraine.

Lars Christian Lilleholt, Denmark’s energy minister, told the Financial Times that the government was proposing a bill to allow foreign and security policy considerations to be taken into account in assessing whether projects such as Nord Stream 2 should be allowed.

The Danes at present only consider the environmental impact of such projects. This would be unlikely to stop the Nord Stream 2 project as it follows the route of the first Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany.

Denmark and Sweden have a say over the project as it goes through their territorial waters.

“The Danish government has not decided whether or not such new legislation will be applied to the (Nord Stream 2) application at hand,” Mr Lilleholt said. Brussels says the Nord Stream 2 project runs counter to European energy objectives to diversify gas supply, cut energy reliance on Russia and keep gas flowing through Ukraine, which depends heavily on transit revenue from existing pipelines.