Some 24 member states signed a formal diplomatic complaint in Washington on Wednesday against US sanctions to stop Germany building a new gas pipeline to Russia, according to the Bloomberg news agency, citing diplomatic sources.
Poland, the Baltic states, and Nordic countries had opposed the Nord stream 2 pipeline, said EU observer on Friday.
In the protest note, the European Union has forbidden further interference by the USA in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea. In the demarche, the EU states explicitly accuse the US government of violating international law.
The wording of the protest note submitted in the US State Department is exclusively available to WELT.
“We can confirm that there was a demarche on August 12th at the invitation of the EU delegation to the US State Department on American sanctions policy,” said European diplomatic circles at the request of WELT: “24 EU member states took part in the demarche, the took place via video conference. “
The European protest against US interference thus has surprisingly strong support. Although the construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline between Russia and Germany has been criticized by not a few European countries, the European Union is now largely closed in its rejection of US interference. Only three EU countries did not join the protest note. Which countries were involved remained unclear for the time being.
If there is one thing that unites the Germans, it is their hatred of the American president, comments Matthew Karnitschnig, chief European correspondent for Politico, based in Berlin
The content of the protest note followed the statement made by EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell on US sanctions policy on July 17th. “We are very concerned about the increasing use of sanctions by the United States against European companies and interests,” it says. “The European Union considers the extraterritorial application of sanctions to be a violation of international law.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extended the US sanctions law to European suppliers and contractors for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline at the end of July. The following week there were direct threatening talks between representatives of US ministries and individual German and European companies. Last week, several US senators headed by the Texan Republican Ted Cruz threatened the operators and employees of the German Baltic Sea port of Sassnitz on Rügen with “financial destruction” if they continued to support the construction of the pipeline.
EU defends itself “on principle”
The increasing threats of sanctions from the USA have been observed for a long time, according to the criticism of the 24 EU states – which refer to the cases “Cuba, International Criminal Court and recently the projects Nord Stream 2 and Turkstream”.
“As a matter of principle”, the European Union defends itself against the application of sanctions by “third countries” against “European companies that conduct legitimate business”. Extraterritorial sanctions are seen as a breach of international law: “European policy should be decided in Europe, not by third countries.” /Compiled from wires- argumentum.al
