Baltic States – CIS, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Legislation, Lithuania, Security

"Some are trying to tell us that it is just a commercial project between individual companies. In fact, we understand that energy projects of this scale are geopolitical projects and, therefore, we pay attention," Grybauskaite told reporters after a meeting with President Joachim Gauck.

"As many as eight countries have signed a letter to the European Commission, which takes a neutral stance, and we also point it out to the German government that we have to think about the whole European Union. The creation of an energy union is everyone's responsibility," she said.

According to the Lithuanian president, maintaining energy security in EU member countries must be a priority when thinking of developing any energy projects.

"We should not allow Russia to divide and rule, like it did previously. For Germany itself, it's not good to fall back into full dependence on Russian energy resources. In this situation, solely interest, solely benefit can't be a value and can't be a foundation. First and foremost, this is the security of all EU countries and the security of supply," she said.

Russia's gas giant Gazprom and five European companies, including Germany's Basf and E.ON, France's Engie, Austria's OMV and Dutch-British Shell, last September signed an agreement on a joint venture for a 10-billion-euro expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline.

The plan is to build two additional strings of Nord Stream by late 2019 to double the pipeline's annual throughput to 110 billion cubic meters.

The target date for launching Nord Stream 2 coincides with the planned expiry of an agreement on Russian gas transit via Ukraine.

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The BNS journalist's trip to Berlin was partly paid for by the Lithuanian President's Office. This has no impact upon the content of the report. Vilnius newsroom.