EU under pressure to fast-track Nord Stream 2

EU under pressure to fast-track Nord Stream 2

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Remote, quiet but energy-rich: the coastal area of Lubmin in north Germany hosts the world's most controversial gas pipeline. Nord Stream 2 stretches for 1, 230 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia through the Baltic Sea to Lubmin in Germany, bypassing Ukraine and Poland. The twin gas pipeline is finished, but it is waiting regulatory approval before it can start providing the 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe every year. Amid heightened geopolitical tensions, that task might not be that easy, CNBC reported . US State Department officials have warned Europe against bowing to Russian pressure and waiving the lengthy process needed to approve Nord Stream 2. Amos Hochstein, a senior advisor for global energy security at the US State Department, said that if Russia has more gas to ship to Europe to ease the continent's supply crunch, it should do so through existing export pipeline infrastructure, including the ones that transit Ukraine. "I don't think that we should, as a society of laws, the United States and Europe … be pushed into waiving restrictions, waiving the regulatory process and the legal process in order to satisfy a crisis that, to some degree, can be