Schr?der under pressure over gas pipeline credit
Gerhard Schr?der, the former German chancellor, is under increasing pressure to resign as chairman of the North European Gas Pipeline Company after it emerged that his SPD-Green coalition government had agreed to grant the project a �1bn credit guarantee in the dying days of the administration.
Guido Westerwelle, leader of the opposition Free Democratic party, said that if Mr Schr?der "wants to keep a little credibility he has no other choice but to resign this scandalous position soon".
Mr Schr?der also faced calls from the Green party at the weekend to resign. Reinhard Bütikofer, one of the Green's leaders, accused Mr Schroder of unacceptable "brazenness".
Mr Schr?der has drawn heavy fire at home for accepting the directorship, paying �250,000 (￡173,000, $301,000) a year, from a company whose project he had helped bring into being as chancellor. The position is one of several lucrative contracts he has struck since stepping down in November.
The NEGPC is a �5bn submarine pipeline project that will bring Siberian gas to Germany's northern coast via the Baltic Sea, bypassing existing pipelines through Ukraine and Poland.
The decision to grant the credit guarantee was taken in October, after last September's inconclusive general election, but before Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats took over as chancellor at the head of a "grand coalition" of the SPD and CDU/CSU. Mr Schr?der was caretaker chancellor.
It was revealed in documents the finance ministry sent to parliament's budget committee last week. It comes just days after Mr Schr?der was formally elected as Gazprom's representative on the supervisory board of the Russian-German joint venture, which is controlled by the Russian energy giant.
A government insider told the FT the economics ministry had received the initial request for a credit guarantee 18 months before the signature of the contract creating the NEGPC. Gazprom holds 51 per cent of the venture, with the rest split equally between Eon and BASF of Germany.
The insider said the economics, finance, foreign and development ministries had agreed on October 24 - after the German election but before Mr Schr?der stepped down on November 22 - that the German government would act as guarantor for a �1bn loan extended by a German bank consortium.
Mr Schr?der and Russia's President Vladimir Putin presided over the contract's signing last September, days before the election that ended Mr Schr?der's second term in office.
Speaking on German television on Saturday, Mr Schr?der denied any conflict of interest, saying he had not known about the guarantee when he was chancellor. Gazprom, he said, had assured him in the meantime that it would not require any loan. "And if there is no credit, there is no credit guarantee," he said.
Wolfgang Clement, then economics minister, gave the final go-ahead for Germany to step in should Gazprom fail to repay the loan, sufficient to cover the costs of building the pipeline's initial section from Siberia to Saint Petersburg.
"The guarantee was given because the pipeline is vital for Germany's energy supplies," Mr Clement told the Welt-am-Sonntag weekly yesterday. "That had nothing to do with Schr?der."
It is not unusual for the German state to provide companies with credit guarantees, though they are rarely extended to non-German companies except for projects of strategic significance.
涉嫌利益冲突 施罗德受抨击
德国前总理格哈德?施罗德(Gerhard Schr?der)正面临外界日益加大的压力，要求其辞去北欧天然气管道公司(NEGPC)董事长一职，因为此前有消息称，在施罗德政府临近下台期间，他领导的社民党(SPD)和绿党(Green)联合政府曾同意为这一项目提供10亿欧元信贷担保。
反对党自由民主党(Free Democratic party)主席基多?威斯特威勒(Guido Westerwelle)表示，如果施罗德“希望保留一点信誉的话，那他应该立即辞去这个有失颜面的职位，除此之外别无选择。”
周末期间，施罗德也接到绿党方面要求其辞职的呼声。绿党领导人之一的莱恩哈特?比蒂科费尔(Reinhard Bütikofer)指责施罗德 “厚颜无耻”到令人无法接受。
施罗德在国内遭到猛烈炮轰的原因，是他接受了这家公司年薪25万欧元(合30.1万美元)的董事长一职，而这家公司的项目正是他在担任德国总理期间帮助取得的。出任该公司董事长，是他自去年11月卸任以来敲定的几个最有油水的合同之一。
北欧天然气管道公司项目是一个价值50亿欧元的海底天然气管道项目，其目的是取道波罗的海，将西伯利亚的天然气输送至德国北部海岸，从而绕过当前途经乌克兰和波兰的管道。
施罗德政府决定为该项目提供信贷担保的时间是去年10月份，即在去年9月份的大选之后，但在安格尔?默克尔(Angela Merkel)接任德国总理，成为社民党和联盟党(CDU/CSU，基民盟与基社盟)组建的“大联合政府”领袖之前。施罗德当时任看守总理。
德国财政部上周递交议会预算委员会的文件透露了此事。而就在几天前，施罗德刚刚被正式推选为俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司(Gazprom)在这家俄德合资公司监事会中的代表。这家俄罗斯能源巨头是该合资公司的控股股东。
一位政府内部人士告诉英国《金融时报》，早在创建北欧天然气管道公司的合同正式签署的18个月前，经济部已经收到了申请信贷担保的最初请求。俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司持有该企业51%的股份，其余股权由德国E.ON和巴斯夫公司(BASF)各持一半。
该内部人士表示，德国经济部、财政部、外交部及经济合作与发展部曾于去年10月24日（德国大选之后，施罗德11月22日卸任之前）达成一致，同意由德国政府出面，为一个德国银行财团提供10亿欧元贷款担任担保人。
去年9月，就在德国大选前几天，施罗德与俄罗斯总统普京(Vladimir Putin)共同主持签署了这份合同。几天后，德国举行大选，结束了施罗德的第二个总理任期。
施罗德在周六发表电视讲话，否认此举存在任何利益冲突，并称他在担任总理期间对这一担保并不知情。他表示，俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司当时曾向他保证无需任何贷款。他说：“如果没有信贷，自然也就没有信贷担保。”
时任德国经济部长的沃尔夫冈?克莱门特(Wolfgang Clement)作出最终决定，批准德国政府充当担保人，一旦俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司不能偿还贷款，德国政府将出手相助。这笔贷款足以支付从西伯利亚到圣彼得堡天然气管道一期工程的建设成本。
对德国政府而言，向企业提供信贷担保并不罕见，但除了战略性项目，非德国公司很少能获得信贷担保。
