Green light for Nord Stream

Sweden and Finland's November 5th approval of the route of the future Nord Stream gas pipeline, which passes through their coastal waters, has set aside any further doubts about the project launched by Russia and Germany in 2002. While the press in Poland and the Baltic states wonders about the future implications of the decision for energy security in their respective countries, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter devotes its front page to concerns expressed by the inhabitants of the island of Gotland, who claim they will be uncomfortably close to Nord Stream. In its editorial, the newspaper notes that Europe receives 25% of gas supplies from Russia, a country which "ought to be the focus of a common European security policy." For the daily, "the authoritarian government in Moscow is certainly a threat, but so too are divisions within the EU."