Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a conservative member of the European Parliament, told public broadcaster Polish Radio that supporters of the pipeline are hoping the European Commission will not react because its attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
The 1,200-kilometre Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea, while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Warsaw and Washington have strongly criticised the project amid concerns that the pipeline will make the European Union more dependent on Russian gas.
Saryusz-Wolski said that countries opposed to the gas link, including Poland, should intervene.
He told Polish Radio: “There are signs that there is pressure for the implementation of Nord Stream 2 under the cover of the corona crisis. There is an intensification of such efforts, with calculation in the background that this will not be noticed or protested.”
US President Donald Trump in December signed a massive defence policy bill that included a measure to punish companies involved in work to build the controversial pipeline.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in May 2008 that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was “a new hybrid weapon” aimed at the European Union and NATO.
US Vice President Mike Pence warned last year that America “cannot ensure the defence of the West” if its allies grow dependent on Moscow as a result of projects such as Nord Stream 2.
(pk)
Source: IAR