"Germany is not depriving itself of anything"

For weeks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had made headlines for his reluctance to publicly utter the words "Nord Stream 2." The name of the second gas pipeline that connects Germany directly with Russia through the Baltic Sea almost seemed like a taboo for the German Executive.

It's not like that. Scholz confirmed this Tuesday the indefinite suspension of the certification of the controversial infrastructureon the eve of the invasion of Ukraine and after Vladimir Putin recognized the pro-Russian People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

There are those who point out that knocking down the Nord Stream 2, an appetizer of sanctions on Moscow urgently agreed by the heads of state and government of the European Union after Putin's war offensive, does not imply losing anything for Germany. "With the Nord Stream 2 decision, Germany is not depriving itself of anything," he assures elDiario.es. Aleks Szczerbiak, professor at the University of Sussex (United Kingdom) and expert political scientist in Eastern Europe.

The decision is "a strong symbol in front of our European partners, and it is good that the project has been frozen," said Jürgen Hardt, spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union (VAP), at a meeting with the Berlin Foreign Press Association (VAP). CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) of Bavaria in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag.

Through this gas pipeline, which had already been built and had not yet come into operation, the transit capacity of Russian gas through the Baltic Sea to Germany could be doubled, as is the first Nord Stream –already active–, with a similar capacity, of about 55,000 million cubic meters per year.

To double that amount, no less than 9,500 million euros had been spent on the Nord Stream 2, 1,230 kilometers long. As investors in the initiative are companies such as the French Engie, the Austrian OMV, the British Royal Dutch Shell and the German Uniper and Wintershall. But it is not the money from the German companies that now seem to have invested for nothing in that pipeline that worries the authorities in Berlin.

These, and all of Europe, are now threatened energetically by Moscow, the main supplier of gas to the EU. From the Russian capital, the former Prime Minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020, Dimitry Medvedev, reacted to the decision as follows: "Scholz has issued an order to stop the certification process of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Good. Welcome to the world of brave in which Europeans are very soon going to pay 2,000 euros for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas".

The vast majority of the gas that Germany imports is of Russian origin. In 2020, 55% of the gas imported by Germany came from Russia, 30% from Norway and 13% from the Netherlands. Those are the main sellers of gas from which the largest economy in the EU and the fourth largest on the planet buys. The country uses this source of energy, mainly, to heat homes, to enable the country's abundant industrial activity and to cover part of its electricity supply, although its role will be reinforced to comply with the plan to dispense with nuclear energy this same year.

Before Medvedev made that threat, the German Economy Ministry, led by ecologist Robert Habeck, also German deputy chancellor, was already working on analyzing "the security of energy supply" in the country, Scholz said. Habeck is one of those who condemns Nord Stream 2. He considers it, as he said earlier this week, "a risk." The environmentalist politician has lamented that his country has considered the gas pipeline for too long only from an economic perspective. So it was during the Angela Merkel years and even in the early weeks of Scholz.

Now, however, Germany seems to have realized that energy policy "always has to be considered from a security and geopolitical point of view," Habeck said in a recent interview with ARD public radio-television. That is why ideas aimed at favoring the country's sovereignty have emerged from his ministry, such as, for example, the creation of a coal reserve. There is already such a reserve for oil that allows the country to supply itself independently of that hydrocarbon for 90 days.

Currently, gas reserves in the country are at 30%. At a minimum in recent years, although it is considered, for now, a sufficient level given that the German winter, already in its last days, is not being particularly cold. Finding ways to diversify energy in the face of dependence on Russian gas seems more complicated than heating homes and feeding German industry during the last month of winter.

A task that Germany has neglected for years and that Scholz, Habeck and company in the German Government have to consider. "We should have considered alternatives to purchasing energy sources," admits Hardt, of the CDU/CSU, referring not only to his country, but also to the EU. About 25% of the gas consumed by the EU comes from Russia. Diversification, as he describes it in Berlin, is a long-term process.

And it is not the only great economic task of the German Government after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Scholz is one of the European leaders who has opposed that Russia is left out of the SWIFT system, organization responsible for the international network of communication and payments between banks and financial institutions. That move has been described in Berlin as the "atomic bomb for financial markets, goods and services." According to the German chancellor, the table is open if more sanctions must be applied to Moscow, but for another time.