Wednesday 6th October
The Swiss company Nord Stream AG, in which the Russian company PJSC Gazprom has a 51% shareholding, 1 owns and operates the Nord Stream (commonly known as Nord Stream 1) pipeline which ensures the flow of gas between Vyborg (Russia) and Lubmin (Germany), near Greifswald (Germany). The construction of that pipeline was completed in 2012, and it is to be operated for a period of 50 years.
The Swiss company Nord Stream 2 AG, which is wholly owned by the Russian public joint stock company Gazprom, is responsible for the planning, construction and operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs parallel to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. In January 2017 works began to recover, in concrete, pipes intended for use as part of that pipeline.
On 17 April 2019 the Parliament and the Council adopted Directive 2019/6922 (‘the amending directive’) amending Directive 2009/73 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas. That directive entered into force on 23 May 2019 and was, in principle, to be transposed by the Member States into their national law by 24 February 2020 at the latest. On the date of its entry into force, works to recover, in concrete, the pipes of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were, according to the statements made by Nord Stream 2 AG, 95% complete.
From the entry into force of the amending directive, pipeline operators such as Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG now have, potentially, a part of their gas transmission lines, in this instance the part located between a Member State and a third State up to the territory of the Member States or the territorial sea of that Member State, made subject to Directive 2009/73 and the provisions of national legislation transposing that directive. This means that those operators have, inter alia, an obligation to unbundle transmission systems and transmission system operators and to introduce a system of non-discriminatory third-party access to gas transmission and distribution systems on the basis of published tariffs.
Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG had brought actions before the General Court, the first seeking partial annulment of the amending directive and the second seeking annulment of that directive in its entirety.
This case concerns the appeal brought on 28 July 2020 by Nord Stream 2 AG against the order of the General Court delivered on 20 May 2020 in Case T-526/19, Nord Stream 2 v Parliament and Council.
Background Documents C-348/20