PARIS, March 12. /TASS/. The European Parliament considers necessary to curtail the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, according to the report on the state of EU-Russia political relations approved on Tuesday.
"Russia and the EU will remain key economic partners in the foreseeable future, but Nord Stream 2 reinforces EU dependency on Russian gas supplies, threatens the EU internal market and is not in line with EU energy policy, and therefore needs to be stopped," the report says.
"The EU’s dependency on Russian gas supplies has increased since 2015," according to the report.
"The deepening of EU integration and coherence between its internal and external policies is the key to a more coherent, effective and successful EU external and security policy, including vis-a-vis Russia," the report noted.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The total cost of the project has been estimated at 9.5 bln euros.
The report also says that the European Parliament will no longer consider Russia a strategic partner.
During the debates, the members of the European Parliament came to a conclusion that in current conditions, Russia can no longer be considered "a strategic partner".
"[The European Parliament] believes <…> that the EU-Russia relationship requires a new framework of cooperation only in those areas that are necessary and in a common interest, and with a view to guaranteeing security in the EU’s neighbourhood and a European peace order; is of the view that the PCA (Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation - TASS) should be discontinued," the document states.
The Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation came into force on December 1, 1997 for an initial duration of 10 years. It has been renewed annually since 2007 and so far remains in force. In 2008, discussions of a new EU-Russia Agreement to replace the PCA started, but the parties failed to reach a conclusion.
