Nord Stream inches closer

Gazprom's plan to supply Europe with two new pipelines has received an unlikely boost from the EU. But opposition is still strong, writes Derek Brower

IT IS ONE of Europe's most controversial energy projects and has faced a welter of public opposition. But the Nord Stream pipeline, which would eventually connect gasfields in northern Russia with consumers in Germany, has new momentum behind it. Russia's war with Georgia in August has reawakened the European Commission's worries about energy security. And despite the blow it delivered to Moscow's reputation in European capitals, the Commission has responded, for the first time, by accepting Gazprom's thesis: that pipelines are more secure when they do not pass through transit countries. "The Georgia war increases the urgency of developing Nord Stream," energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs sa