EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Lithuania, Railways, Transport

In his words, funding of the project should not be linked with negotiations among countries.

"We will definitely reach an agreement. The issue has been exaggerated, as the acquisition probably won't start until the next year or even the year after. (…) An agreement among countries should not be linked to financing," Sinkevicius told BNS Lithuania.

After project coordinator Catherine Trautmann warned countries about the deprivation of funding, Sinkevicius replied that funding was "earmarked by the European Commission, not the project coordinator."

In his words, if the VAT is stipulated to stay in the country where the work is conducted, Lithuania does not really care who calls the tenders – the joint Baltic company RB Rail or every individual country.

"It does not really matter to us who organizes the acquisitions, what we care about is the VAT staying in the country where the work is done. The tenders will be international anyway, and everyone will be able to participate," said the Lithuanian minister.

Trautmann told 15min.lt news portal that the failure of the Baltic States to agree on tender procedures by June may cause them to lose the money. EC wants the acquisitions to be conducted in a centralized manner.

In February, RB Rail, a joint venture established by the Baltic countries for the Rail Baltica project, submitted a joint application to the European Commission on additional funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). Funding requested in the application for Rail Baltica works in Lithuania's territory amounts to 197 million euros, which accounts for approximately 85% of the total value of those works, worth 231 million euros.