July 29, 2021
The Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees of the Parliaments of Estonia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom and Ukraine stated, “We, the Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees of our respective national parliaments, are deeply disturbed by the decision of the United States and Germany on Nord Stream 2, which entails resuming completion of works on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
We consider Nord Stream 2 a geopolitical project geared towards expanding Russia’s geostrategic influence on Europe by dominating the energy market. The completion of the pipeline will strengthen the impact of Russian gas in the European energy mix, endanger the national security of the EU and the United States, and threaten the already precarious security and sovereignty of Ukraine. Moreover, the completion of NS2 will give Russia yet another tool to pressure and blackmail Ukraine. It continues to face Russia’s brutal aggression and military occupation of its territories because of its pro-European choice. As a result, over 14,000 Ukrainians have died, and every week, more Ukrainian soldiers give their lives to protect their homeland and entire Europe.
The likely repercussion of the completion and operation of Nord Stream 2 is to undermine the development of a single, liberalized, and open European market by consolidating sources of supply in the Nord Stream 2 system and deterring investment in alternatives.
We hear assurances that Ukraine will receive some compensation for agreeing to the launch of Nord Stream 2. However, the parties involved in the Nord Stream 2 project must significantly expand their support to Ukraine to prevent a deepening of the current security crisis, exacerbated by the threats created by Nord Stream 2. Therefore, we call on all those involved to address this security crisis in our region with the utmost seriousness and realize that Russia is the only beneficiary of this project.
The Euro-Atlantic security and prosperity are held up by, firstly, democracy and cooperation between democratic nations. We need to make a collective commitment to increase support to the security and defence capabilities of Ukraine and commit to delivering a clear road map for Ukraine’s path towards joining the NATO alliance. We insist on making legal commitments to Ukraine on behalf of NATO and, by the end of this year, develop a clear, legally binding road map for Ukraine’s path to becoming a NATO member. To consolidate the transformation efforts of the Ukrainian government as well as democracy and human rights in the region, we call for a European Union membership perspective to be agreed upon for Ukraine and other associated countries in the region as well as free, fair and democratic elections to be held in Belarus this year.
We continue to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which is a means for Russia to engage in malign influence activities and efforts to undermine European energy security. We expect a clear commitment from Germany to reduce dependency on gas imported from Russia and move towards green energy. We presume that Germany will handle its responsibility towards these goals with the utmost dedication. In the changing security environment in the region, we call for commitments from NATO to strengthen deterrence, especially in the Baltic States.
We insist that any further agreements on Nord Stream 2 necessitate consultations across the transatlantic family. Moreover, such diplomacy should happen with the fundamental principle in mind – countering malign Russian aggression is in all of NATO’s, all EU members, and our partners in Central and Eastern Europe vital national security interests.”