Energy, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

The prime minister said that a joint company of Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden could be established to implement the project and the research of the bottom of the Baltic Sea could start already this summer, reports from Brussels ELTA's special correspondent Vaidotas Beniusis.

During a session in Brussels on Thursday, the European Council approved in principle the proposal of the European Commission to allocate 175 million euros (604 million litas) for the electricity bridge between the Baltic states and Sweden. This decision is to be formally confirmed on Friday. "I think that it is not hard to reach an agreement that this bridge would be erected by the three countries via an established joint company (...). When the European Council itself obliges us – Swedes, Latvians and Lithuanians – to build such bridge and use the EU's funds allocated in these hard times, it would be shame on us if we did not agree on the realization of this EU project due to some reasons," Kubilius told journalists on late Thursday evening in Brussels.

Lithuania's leaders had earlier said once and again that the electricity link would enable Lithuania to escape from energy isolation and dependence from Russia.

According to Prime Minister Kubilius, the research work of the Baltic Sea bottom could be launched already this summer. Yet until then a final agreement with Latvia on the route of the electricity bridge needs to be sought, since both Vilnius and Riga seek to have the landfall of the link.

Kubilius also noted that a common electricity market of the Baltic states should be simultaneously created following the model of the Nordic countries.