What circumstances have led to Germany becoming so dependent on energy supplies from Russia? If it goes according to the ideas of a Green politician from Greifswald, the Bundestag will deal with it.
Schwerin (dpa / mv) - According to the will of the Greens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Bundestag should also deal with the background to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and Germany's great dependence on Russian gas. "The years of disproportionate focus on Russian interests urgently need to be examined and comprehensively clarified in relation to the actions of the past federal governments," says a motion for the federal party conference of the Greens in Bonn in mid-October. In it, the party's parliamentary group is asked to promote the establishment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into possible lobbying activities in the interest of Russia.
The initiator of the application is Hannes Damm, member of the Greifswald state parliament, who found numerous supporters in the north-east and also in other state associations. The 30-year-old is considered one of the driving forces in clarifying the circumstances that led to the founding of the controversial Climate Protection Foundation Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. An investigative committee of the state parliament in Schwerin has already started work on this, but faces resistance from the top of the foundation.
The foundation was set up by the state in early 2021 to promote climate protection and at the same time to actively support the completion of the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The main financier of the foundation was the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2 with 20 million euros. Critics speak of a bogus foundation in which climate protection was only intended to cloak the actual purpose of completing the gas pipeline while circumventing the threat of US sanctions. The line was finally completed in 2021, but did not receive an operating license from the German authorities due to the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Damm attested to the governments under Gerhard Schröder (SPD) and his successor in the Chancellery, Angela Merkel (CDU), making "massive, avoidable energy and security policy mistakes". "By the time the war of aggression against Ukraine began, at the latest, it has become obvious what dramatic consequences the Federal Republic's far too great dependence on Russian natural gas has on our own political scope for action and on the European peace and security architecture," writes Damm in the justification for the motion. At the beginning of the war, the Russian share of the German gas supply was more than 55 percent, "an irresponsibly high rate for a single supplier," as Damm emphasizes.
