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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 20:15

Commission: Rail Baltic is opportunity not to be missed

BC, Tallinn, 13.06.2017.Print version
Integrating Estonia and the Baltic states in the European railway network via a modern and direct railway connection, with a large financial support from the European Union, is an opportunity that will not present itself again if it is not seized now, Catherine Trautmann, European coordinator for the TEN-T North Sea-Baltic Corridor, said LETA/ BNS.

Under the Connecting Europe Facility, transport projects compete for funding. Resources which are not used in one project will benefit another transport project with high EU priority. Even if the exact outcome of the budgetary negotiations at the EU level is not known yet, it is only natural that projects such as Rail Baltic, fulfilling all the criteria set in the EU Regulations, will be seen as highest priority for access to financial support also in the future, especially if they are well advanced in the construction phase," Trautmann said in a press release dated June 12.


Trautmann said that as European coordinator of the North Sea-Baltic Corridor, she has been closely following the Rail Baltic project for several years now, acting as a facilitator between the five member states involved in its development.


"Since several months, I am concerned to observe how the project is used by some politicians and opponents in Estonia, which continue to spread false information in the public sphere. It is for every country to make its own choices, but as European coordinator, I see it as my duty to highlight the risks and the opportunities involved," she said.


"In my own region, we have been fighting for a high-speed railway connection for decades. Today, we see the economic boost this has brought even to sparsely populated areas along the railway. Accessibility is one of the key factors for attracting companies, along with qualified workforce and digital infrastructure. We are living in an economy of fluxes, and the Baltic States deserve to be better connected to fully benefit from these developments," the coordinator said.


"Rail Baltic is part of a European Corridor that involves eight member states, who all accept to concentrate scarce resources on this project, because it is a missing link in the European railway network. As demonstrated by the updated cost-benefit analysis presented in April, Rail Baltic is realistic and viable, and its socio-economic benefits outweigh the costs by far. Drawing back from it would be breaking an engagement that has been built up during years, affirmed in numerous political declarations as well as in the relevant legal texts adopted at the EU level," Trautmann said.


She said that, last but not least, Rail Baltic is not a pipedream. It is a project that is already ongoing and which has received substantial EU support, in the amount of 733 mln euros in the Baltic states and 488 mln euros in Poland. "If the project advances according to schedule, it has every chance to benefit from additional financial resources both under the current and the next EU financial framework," the coordinator added.






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