The study assesses whether the Nord Stream 2 pipeline contributes to a division of European gas markets. It demonstrates that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline cannot be used for market separation, under conditions of existing pipeline capacity and local gas consumption. This is due to the fact that in the European internal market, according to the EU’s own market rules, the importers and thus also the consumers are protected against such behaviour. Even if under increased gas demand in East Europe, such a strategy for splitting the market would be neither successful nor effective.
