Estonian government does not give permission to German company to examine seabed

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“Taking into account the sovereignty of the Estonian Republic in its territorial waters and Estonia’s national interests in the Estonian economic zone,” the government of the country decided not to meet the request of Nord Stream AG (Germany), says a statement of the government received by REGNUM today. The statement says that Estonia has a right to deny the permission to conduct the research. The Cabinet of Ministers cites not political, but environmental reasons to substantiate its decision.

As REGNUM reported before, Nord Stream AG addressed the Estonian Foreign Ministry with a request for permission to conduct geophysical and geotechnical research, visual control and taking samples in the Estonian economic waters for possible laying out the Russian-German gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea bed. On September 18, the Estonian foreign ministry advised that the government met the request citing results of its analysis and that issuing a permit would not mean permitting to lay the pipeline itself. 19 from 20 independent surveys of the project ordered by the Estonian government gave a positive assessment to the project and recommend to issue the permit. Only Academician Endel Lipmaa gave a negative assessment to the project.