Merkel’s $11 Billion Pipeline Plan Runs Into EU Ally Challenge

  • Polish fine threatens to postpone Merkel-backed energy project
  • Dispute exposes fraught ties between Germany and Poland

Angela Merkel

Photographer: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg
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Angela Merkel’s backing for an $11 billion, Russian-backed Baltic Sea gas pipeline is exacting a cost.

Long criticized for wielding Germany’s might to run roughshod over the interests of smaller European Union members, she effectively quashed a debate over whether the bloc would target the Nord Stream 2 project in response to the poisoning of one of President Vladimir Putin’s top critics.