“Even if Estonia does not see the economic or any other benefit for ourselves in this project, we, as the EU Council’s presiding member state, stand ready to play a constructive role to enable the European Commission to do its work as efficiently as possible,” Hilpus said in an interview with Russian news agency Interfax on Tuesday.

“It is important to us to ensure that all principles of the European Energy Union are observed to the maximum extent. And here the presiding state’s role is to facilitate discussions and enable the European Commission to get a mandate for such negotiations. In this sense, Estonia as the EU Council’s presiding state will not slow down this process,” Hilpus said.

“On the state level, Estonia has been skeptical of the Nord Stream project, as we don’t see any need for it," Hilpus said. "In our opinion, this project doesn’t help create a diversity of sources and routes for gas supplies to the European market, because it will only serve to increase dependence on one supplier.”

Member of the Riigikogu Marko Mihkelson (independent) said earlier this week that the impending vote of the U.S. House of Representatives on more sanctions against Russia could serve to reconsider their opinion of the pipeline project, as the sanctions would potentially have an adverse effect on the EU-Russian energy business.