VILNIUS - Lithuanian members of the European Parliament (EP) say that Russian gas giant Gazprom has hired lobbyists in a new offensive to push for parliamentary approval of the plan to lay the proposed Nord Stream gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
They claim that Germany is defending Gazprom's interests, and it is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to protest against the pipeline, whose route is designed to bypass Lithuania and the other Baltic states. Gazprom has prepared its counter-argument in documents and correctives, but as the company cannot present its case directly to the EP, it will have to work through lobbyists.
"From this we see there is quite a great battle at play here, and I cannot guarantee that counter-forces not connected with Germany will succeed in pushing ahead. We are trying to resist this and will aim for everything to go as it should," said MEP Vytautas Landsbergis, who belongs to both the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and the European Democrat Parliamentary Group.
The parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee considered the issue Friday. "Actually, the British and others also complained of unprecedented lobbyism from the part of the Germans, from the side of Gazprom," said Justinas Paleckis of the Socialist parliamentary group.
The Nord Stream pipeline will connect Russian gas output with Germany's Baltic coast, running about 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic Sea. Slated to go on-line in 2010, the first phase of the pipeline will have a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year. Construction of the second phase, scheduled for completion by 2012, is projected to double capacity, to 55 billion cubic meters.
Lithuanian MEPs and members of the Seimas have also become alarmed over the recent change of opinion from the European Commission member responsible for energy issues, Latvian Andris Piebalgs, who has recently become an ardent supporter of the project.
Discussions of the potential detrimental effects of the pipeline on the environment arose because of the estimated 40,000 tons of WWII-era chemical weapons that lie buried at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Lithuania, Poland and other countries of the Baltic Sea region fear the possibility of an ecological catastrophe if the explosive matter from decaying shells is disturbed.
Nord Stream claims that the pipeline "is designed so as not to cross the World War II ammunition dump sites . . . chemical weapons dump sites or military zones."
Voting on the issue, in the EP's plenary session, is scheduled for this week.
