The Danish Energy Agency granted a construction permit to Nord Stream 2 to build a gas pipeline south-east of Bornholm, proposed in May 2019. It preferred this path on the basis of environmental and safety considerations. The route is within the Danish exclusive economic zone, outside of Danish territorial waters: consequently, it does not require the approval from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and would be only subject to an open handling process in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In July 2019, Nord Stream 2 decided to withdraw its application for the 2017 route through Danish territorial waters south of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, which had been under approval process for the last two years. The project company had only maintained its applications for two other alternative routes, one north-west of Bornholm submitted in August 2018 and one south-east of Bornholm submitted in May 2019.
Denmark was the only country yet to grant a construction permit for Nord Stream 2. The gas pipeline project has been approved before in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Russia and is already under construction in Germany with the aim to flow first gas by the end of 2019. The €9.5bn (US$11bn) Nord Stream 2 project is aimed at doubling the throughput of the current Nord Stream route between Vyborg (Russia) and Greifswald (Germany), from 55 bcm/year to 110 bcm/year. It is developed by Gazprom (50%), Uniper, Shell, OMV, Wintershall and Engie (10% each).