Die Nord Stream Pipeline : Politisches Instrument oder Interkonnektor?

Abstract

Energy questions and energy security are highly interlinked with general security issues. Germany, the Baltic states and Poland, among others, are becoming increasingly dependent on imported oil and gas from energy-rich states such as Russia. In September 2005, the contract on the construction of the Nord Stream Pipeline was ratified by the Russian company Gazprom and the German companies E.ON and BASF. This pipeline will let Russia provide Germany with natural gas and at the same time bypass Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus and the Ukraine. The majority of Eastern European states is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies. An offshore pipeline from Russia to Germany therefore creates some major challenges for states such as Poland and the Ukraine, because these states import large parts of their energy consumption from Russia and also serve as transit states for Russian gas to Western Europe. With the construction of the Nord Stream Pipeline they might face problems to keep up their own energy and security goals. Since Russia enhances its ability to provide Western Europe with gas via the Baltic Sea, its shipments through Eastern Europe become less important. As a result of these circumstances, leaders in Moscow could use the Nord Stream Pipeline as leverage against Eastern European states to improve the negotiated results in political or economic issues. Turning to Germany, especially eastern EU members such as the Baltic states and Poland view the bilateral German-Russian energy policy from a very critical perspective. Since Germany is an important wheel in the European integration process, the Nord Stream Pipeline also causes some irritations and potentially negative implications for that process. It is the aim of this thesis to uncover the driving forces of current energy policy behind the German and Russian official settings. Moreover, it sheds further light on the different types of energy strategy in Russia, Germany, Eastern Europe and the European Union.