The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Parliament voted last week to create its own foundation for the further construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with the coalition caucuses of the SPD, CDU and even the Linke all voting for this option. The AfD party withheld its vote.

The official title of the new entity will be Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection MV and funded with a working capital sum of €200 000. Nord Stream AG has pledged an initial amount of €20 million to be followed by another tranche of €60 million over the long term.

The overriding purpose of the foundation is to encourage climate and environmental protection projects. However it can also become commercially active in the support of the further construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, US sanctions notwithstanding.  According to the State government the foundation could serve as a kind of storage facility for products such a pipes and machines and other material that could be used for the construction and maintenance of the pipeline. In the Mukran harbor on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen lie pipes intended for use in Nord Stream 2.

The Minister President Manuela Schwesig (SPD) said Russian natural gas will be used as a bridge for the successful transition to a fossil - free energy policy.  And CDU parliamentarian Dietmar Eifler declared that "until we are able to cover our energy requirements on the basis of nuclear fusion or hydrogen, we need a half-way clean and secure fossil fuel supplier and that is natural gas."   

Parliamentarian Mignon Schwenke of the Linke maintained that "we are no colony of the USA that waits for instructions on how to act." For this reason his party also stands behind the establishment of the foundation. "This is a decisive step enabling the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline," Schwenke said.