BRUSSELS, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Finland, which earlier raised environmental concerns over the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea, is set to give its approval to the project, a Belgian radio station reported on Wednesday.
The Brussels-based radio station Contact said that Finland's Minister of European and Migration Affairs Astrid Thors expected his country to give an environmental approval for the Nord Stream construction.
The Nord Stream pipeline, which will pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, bypassing East European transit countries, is being built jointly by Gazprom, Germany's E.ON and BASF, and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of $12 billion.
The ambitious pipeline project is scheduled to be completed in 2012. The first of two parallel pipelines, approximately 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) long, each with a transport capacity of some 27.5 billion cu m per annum, is to become operational in 2010.
Some countries, including Sweden, Estonia and Finland, earlier questioned the environmental safety of the Baltic Sea pipeline.
