A new transatlantic pipeline designed to protect NATO members’ energy security would ‘chip away at Irish neutrality by stealth’, the Irish Anti-War Movement has said. 

A new energy interconnector between North America and Europe is being considered under the leadership of British-French energy expert Laurent Segalen. 

Dubbed ‘North Atlantic Transmission One-Link’ or ‘NATO-L’, the pipeline would cost €40 billion to build over a 15 year period and would reduce western democracies’ reliance on energy imports from autocratic regimes. 

On its website, NATO-L describes an interconnector as a “way to build a physical link between [NATO’s] two [continents], strengthening energy security amongst its members in a time when energy is being weaponised by hostile regimes.”

Part of the pipeline would be built in Irish waters and Irish Anti-War Movement spokesperson Mark Price said he would oppose building such an interconnector. 

“It’s part of the chipping away of our neutrality by stealth,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“This is proposed by a veteran energy investment banker and the idea being that we need to protect ourselves from threats to our energy. 

“All of your listeners know, the threat to European energy in recent years has been the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline.” 

Mr Price said he was not happy with the political nature of the scheme. 

“Every other thing we do in terms of supply and demand - being good capitalists in this country,” he said. 

“We buy on the basis of the best value; this is now being entertained as something where we’re not going to entertain tenders from the Russians and the Chinese. 

“This is going to be exclusively NATO based.” 

A NATO flag flies surrounded by flags of member states at the headquarters of the military alliance in Brussels. Belgium. Picture via @NATOpress on Twitter

Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy. 

Despite this, Mr Price said he had no issue with using Russian-supplied energy. 

“The biggest threat to European energy doesn’t actually come from Russia and China,” he said. 

“Why Ireland would be roped into some scheme which is alleged to protect us from Russia or China is a mystery to me.” 

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Main image: A NATO flag in , Lithuania. Picture by: dpa picture alliance / Alamy