Work has officially begun to build the German section of a contested gas pipeline from Russia that is opposed by Poland and other countries, according to reports.

Construction work on the German section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is now officially under way in the northern German town of Lubmin on the Baltic coast, public broadcaster Polish Radio has reported.

According to Poland’s niezalezna.pl website, crews working near where the prospective gas pipeline will enter land in Lubmin on Tuesday morning started deepening a ditch in the seabed for the pipes to be laid.

The Stralsund Mining Authority in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has issued permission for this work, niezalezna.pl reported.

According to an earlier report by Polish Radio’s IAR news agency, workers in early May started preparatory work to dig up the ground and lay the foundations for a terminal that will receive gas via the controversial pipeline.

Nord Stream 2 project 'a bad deal' for EU: Polish deputy FM

Meanwhile, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymański has said that the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany should not be built because it will harm the European Union and Ukraine.

In an article posted on the politico.eu website, Szymański said that the planned gas link “is a bad deal for the European Union and a bad deal for Ukraine, and it should not go ahead.”

Germany’s maritime authority in March approved the project, making Germany the first country to have issued all the necessary permits for the pipeline to be built within its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

In early April, the Finnish government gave the go-ahead to the construction of the undersea pipeline through Finland's economic zone.

Environmental groups protest

According to the Polish public radio broadcaster, German environmental protection organisation Naturschutzbund Deutschland has appealed to a court in Greifswald, northeastern Germany, to stop, at least temporarily, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from being built.

Environmental group ClientEarth on Monday said it had submitted a complaint to a Finnish administrative court in a bid to halt the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline through Finnish waters.

According to ClientEarth, the project poses a serious risk to marine life.

Other countries along the route of the planned undersea gas pipeline, among them Sweden and Denmark, have yet to approve the planned gas link from Russia to Germany.

If built, the 1,200-kilometre Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is scheduled for completion in 2019, will supply around 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, circumventing Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine.

Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine all oppose the project.

The US State Department spokeswoman said in March that the US government opposed Nord Stream 2 as the project would undermine Europe’s energy security and stability.

Heather Nauert said at a department press briefing that companies engaged in the construction and financing of the pipeline “could expose themselves to sanctions” under US law.

(gs/pk)

Source: niezalezna.pl, Polish Radio, IAR, politico.eu