Dialogue continues in international consultation process
Aug. 30, 2007 | Berlin | A regular meeting with the international working group for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of all Baltic Sea countries was held in Berlin on 21-22 August 2007. The meeting was part of the Espoo procedure for the Nord Stream project.
Nord Stream presented the current state of the project in respect of the intended outline, contents and schedule of the EIA report, the status of research for the EIA and the accompanying communications strategy.
Furthermore, Nord Stream informed about the decision to optimise the pipeline to run north – rather than south – of the Danish island of Bornholm. The decision – which will add about 8 kilometres to the pipeline's total length - follows further research into environmental and legal issues. Besides these studies, meetings with Danish and German authorities were held to discuss the matter.
Studies indicate that a more northerly route, which will stay even further away from the known munitions dump sites south of Bornholm, will minimise any environmental impact and will also rule out the possibility of delay due to legal uncertainties with regard to the unsettled sea border south of Bornholm.
In September 2007, Nord Stream will inform all relevant authorities about the details of the route north of Bornholm and investigations into possible route optimisation in the Gulf of Finland and further south of Gotland. The route optimisation activities and the next steps in the Espoo process will be discussed in a further meeting with the international representatives in October 2007. The EIA report will be presented to the authorities of all countries involved and will be made available for public scrutiny.
The Espoo Convention sets out the obligations of Parties to assess the environmental impact of certain activities at an early stage of planning.
