Baltic gas pipeline sparks fears in Nordic countries

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A gas pipeline project linking Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea that has already prompted an outcry in Poland is also raising environmental and national security concerns in the Nordic countries.

The project proposes the construction of a 1,200-kilometer (740-mile) pipeline off Finland’s southern coast, passing to the east of the Swedish island of Gotland and to the south of the Danish island of Bornholm.


Denmark, Finland and in particular Sweden fear the pipeline construction could damage the ecologically sensitive Baltic Sea, the seabed of which is peppered with munitions dumped by the allies at the end of World War II.

Some 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, such as mustard gas, lie on the bottom, including 13,000 tonnes of active chemical agents, according to the Helsinki-based Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission.

AFP