Annalena Baerbock, the co-leader of Germany’s Green Party accused Russia of ‘blackmailing’ Europe by driving up energy prices, claiming that Moscow is attempting to use Germany as a pawn in order to allow the Nord Stream 2 Baltic gas pipeline to begin operations.
Baerbock, seen as a likely foreign minister in the next government, drew attention to a major faultline in talks set to begin on Thursday between her party, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and the liberal Free Democrats in forming the next government of Germany.
She told the Funke newspaper group in an interview that she could see a poker play by Russia, on Wednesday. She reminded that Germany must not let themselves be blackmailed by Russia, as the gas deliveries were being cut by Russsia amid the hiking demand and tighter supply for fuel across Europe.
According to Baerbock, It is critical to enforce into the European Union rules that pipeline operators are not the producers of the gas they transport. Gazprom owns both the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the gas it would transport. Unless this changes, the pipeline will require an exemption before it can begin operations, she added.
Baerbock said that she believed that the Greens would be successful in convincing the other parties to agree to move the whole transition away from coal-fired electricity to 2030, rather than 2038.
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