The Washington Nationals’ ubiquitous World Series victory slogan, “fight finished,” has been draped across every corner of the US capital for weeks. At the same time, a second, unfinished fight that for years has united lawmakers in both parties has hit a critical phase.
On October 30, officials at the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) issued a final construction permit for the deployment of the Kremlin-conceived Nord Stream 2 pipeline within Denmark’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Danish permit should not be viewed as a tacit approval of the project’s merits. In fact, Danish officials have been public with their concerns about the pipeline’s negative impact—especially for Ukraine’s strategic stability—and resisted the project for years. Under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, Copenhagen lacked the legal authority to block the EEZ route, as it did when it effectively blocked Gazprom’s preferred route through Denmark’s territorial sea last Summer. Copenhagen’s principled leadership in support of European security—while facing Kremlin pressure aimed at undermining its own concerns about the pipeline—deserves much praise.
Continue reading the blog article on the Harvard website written by Benjamin L. Schmitt which is the Former European Energy Security Advisor in the US Department of State.
