GERMANY - Aside from being an affront to EU sovereignty and an imminent threat to European jobs, the sweeping US sanctions targeting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline mark the end of the Transatlantic partnership, Gerhard Schroeder has said. A sanctions bill currently being debated in the US Congress is “a widespread, unjustified attack on the European economy and unacceptable interference with EU sovereignty and energy security in Western Europe,” former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder argued in a position paper drafted ahead of parliamentary hearings on the matter. The penalties – which affect “over 120 shipbuilding, engineering, environmental and security companies that work or have worked with Nord Stream 2” – mark the “definite termination of the Transatlantic partnership,” the retired chancellor’s statement said, as cited by the German business daily Handelsblatt. At the hearing, there was no shortage of speakers bashing the US for meddling in German and European affairs.