Status: 03/14/2023 8:49 p.m
The federal government’s plans for a liquefied natural gas terminal five kilometers from Rügen are met with widespread rejection in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Prime Minister Schwesig criticized the project, and almost all parliamentary groups are calling for alternative locations.
“The project does not fit the country, tourism, nature and the people,” said Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Anklam (Vorpommern-Greifswald district). According to the current plans, two platforms are to be built in the Baltic Sea off Sellin in the south-east of Rügen, on which floating liquefied natural gas terminals are to be moored. Schwesig called for alternatives to be examined.
Schwesig refers to several energy projects in MV
Schwesig emphasized that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is ready to make a contribution to a reliable energy supply. The technical solutions would have to fit the country. She referred to the LNG terminal that has already gone into operation in Lubmin. Oil for the refinery in Schwedt (Brandenburg) also comes via the port of Rostock. According to Schwesig, the great interest in LNG terminals in the region is due to the onshore connection infrastructure of the Nord Stream pipelines. They are interesting for supplying large parts of Germany and Europe with gas.
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Five out of six parliamentary groups want alternative locations
Broad resistance to the project in its current form has also developed in the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Four of the six factions – in addition to the government factions SPD and Left, also the opposition factions Greens and FDP – want to submit a joint application for the next regular state parliament session next week, as the SPD faction announced. In it they call on the federal government to examine alternative locations. The state government in Berlin should work towards this “vigorously”. The concerns of the local people must be taken seriously. The CDU wants to submit its own application in which it calls for the approval process to be suspended. “The plans for LNG terminals off the coast of Rügen must be shelved,” said parliamentary group leader Franz-Robert Liskow. Alternative locations would have to be examined.
Talks between the state and the federal government
The country had repeatedly expressed its concerns about the planned large LNG terminal near the coast of Rügen. On Monday, Economics Minister Reinhard Meyer (SPD) and Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) were in talks at the Federal Ministry of Economics, as Schwesig reported. She did not comment on the result. At the weekend, around 3,500 people protested against the plans at the “Resonance” festival on Rügen. There had been protests before.
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