US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 will force the EC to speak up

The US announcement about sanctioning Nord Stream 2 companies requires EC to take a relevant action and speak up. Although, due to the political reasons (EU’s states involvement in NS2), it is difficult for EC to fully team up with US on sanctions against Nord Stream 2, this situation begs for a vocal reaction from the Commission – writes Grzegorz Krzyżanowski, a co-operator of BiznesAlert.pl.

Otherwise, if the issue is not adequately addressed, or even worse, passed over in silence it would leave very negative impression of the weak EC at the end of its term. Lack of EC’s engagement could result in a broadly held notion that US is more concerned about securing EU’s interests than EU itself, and EC could be perceived as “the host who has left its own party” because it would be absent from crucial discussion on what’s happening on EU’s territory.

In fact, by announcing sanctions, US is doing a favor to the EU by raising the ante, so it’s easy to justify that EC must take a stand. Moreover, Commission as its term is ending soon is in a convenient situation (has more freedom and could allow itself to articulate EU’s position more directly) to take a more resolute stance.