The Russian-German company building a gas pipe under the Baltic sea on Tuesday rejected the idea that an independent environmental assessement should take place, as has been suggested by some of the scheme's critics.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas has been one of those calling for such a probe of the environmental impact of the pipe, being built by Russia's Gazprom and Germany's BASF and E.ON, to connect Russia directly to European gas markets.
"We would like to see an independent environmental impact assessment besides the one done by the Nord Stream company," Kirkilas told a news conference after a seminar on energy policy in the Latvian capital.
But Nord Stream's senior lawyer, Barbara Kallnik, told Reuters that there was no legal basis for an independent report on the impact on the environment.
"I have heard that demand also from NGOs but I can't find a legal basis for such an independent report. There is no legal basis in EU regulations for such a report," Kallnik said.
The Nord Stream pipeline projects still faces several hurdles before construction can begin, but Kallnik was confident that construction will start in 2008.
"I know that is an ambitious time schedule but we are still big on that," Kallnik said.
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said his country was still uncertain about its stance on the pipeline.
"We would like to know what happens just next to our coastline," Ansip said and added that it was too soon to say if Estonia was against or in favor of the pipeline project.
(Reuters, 12/06/2007)