Gazprom announced in September that it was ready to pump natural gas to Germany and was waiting for clearance from the German energy regulator. Under EU rules on unbundling, the pipeline’s owner should be different from the gas supplier.
"The requirements are set out in EU laws. We have them detailed in exploratory papers — in general and with respect to Nord Stream 2. It is an unbundling issue," Juergen Trittin told a news conference.
The Green veteran politician, who served as minister for the environment from 1998 to 2005, said that the leftist party was bent on limiting German dependence on fossil fuels. Trittin said he did not see Russia’s role in the EU fuel crisis, which he attributed to a shrinking gas supply and a shift toward renewables.