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Thursday, 28.03.2024, 20:15
Commission: Rail Baltic is opportunity not to be missed
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.