Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea. The 1,200-plus-kilometre link is expected to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany, while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Warsaw and Washington have both strongly criticised the project amid concerns that the pipeline will make the European Union more dependent on Russian gas.
An amendment to the EU’s gas directive passed last year stipulates that offshore sections of gas pipelines in the EU will be subject to the bloc’s restrictive third energy package, Poland’s energetyka24.com website reported.
Under EU rules, companies that build, operate and own pipelines must be separate.
The Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG companies brought a case before a European Union court in Luxembourg protesting against the amended directive, energetyka24.com reported.
But the EU court on Wednesday rejected the challenge, saying it was up to individual member states to enforce European Union gas rules, the Reuters news agency reported.
(pk)