Estonian governing coalition split on Russian-German pipeline
A request by Russian-German gas company Nord Stream, partially owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom, to carry out surveys in Estonian waters for a future Baltic Sea gas pipeline has caused a rift in the three-party governing coalition here.
The request will be examined by the government on Thursday and Estonian authorites have promised to reply to Nord Stream by the end of September.
The political parties Pro Patria and Res Publica Union earlier this week voiced strong opposition to the request and called on other coalition parties for support.
But the Reform party, led by Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, is more receptive to the initiaitve by Nord Stream.
The daily Eesti Paevaleht reported Wednesday that Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet was expected to present the government with a proposal to back the request.
Kristi Land, adviser to the vice secretary general of the Estonian Foreign Ministry responsible for legal affairs, said permission to carry out the surveys could be refused only on the basis of the UN Maritime Convention or Estonian law on the exclusive maritime zone.
The ministry of foreign affairs had asked 20 institutions for an opinion on the question and all have now been received.
Among them, a study compiled by Estonian Academy of Sciences is the most critical.
'Gazprom has became partly a military enterprise and we see that the pipeline poses not only ecological but also very serious security risks for Estonia,' scientist Endel Lippmaa, head of the energy council at the Academy of Scienses told AFP on Wednesday.
'Such gas pipelines under the sea have lot of sensors that can be used also for military surveillance, and no NATO country can agree (to) the chance that Russia might get such an option inside our territory.
'The fact that leading goverment party has started to speak openly for granting the permission for such work is very regretful,' Lippmaa added.
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves declined to comment Wednesday on whether he supports the Nord Stream request.
The Nord Stream project would be 1,198 kilometers (749 miles) in length, one of the longest underwater pipelines in the world.
