German official discounts Swedish concerns over Baltic pipeline

Aug 20, 2006, 14:46 GMT

Schwerin, Germany - Swedish concerns that a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea may lead to pollution were described as exaggerated Sunday by Harald Ringstorff, premier of the German state where the pipeline will reach land.

'Of course you have to taken the concerns seriously,' said the Mecklenburg West Pomerania leader. 'But I would advise against hysteria.'

He said there were many undersea gas pipelines in the world and he was not aware of any that had led to ecological disasters.

On Thursday, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said his nation was seriously concerned at the pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is to be sunk into the sea bottom using hoses that stir up the mud.

The state premier downplayed concern that large amounts of pollutants would re-enter the water from the mud.

'One ought to be more critical about what is churned up from the seabed by fishing trawlers,' he said. 'The path of the pipeline is quite narrow.'

Ringstorff also noted that the North Europe Gas Pipeline (NEGP) would be vital in supplying Europe with energy.

Land sections of the line have already been welded, but construction under the water will not begin till 2008, with the first gas set to flow two years later. Poland opposes construction of the line because it will be bypassed by it.