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

The Rail Baltica deal was signed in Tallinn on Jan. 31 in an effort to make sure that the infrastructure in the territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by 2025, with European Union (EU) and national financial assistance envisaged for the purpose.

“Three Baltic states have confirmed their long-term commitment to the Rail Baltica project development by ratifying the intergovernmental agreement in their parliaments. This is a milestone step to demonstrate the Baltic interest in the project implementation, relevant to different stakeholders – general publics of the Baltic countries, potential customers, contractors, industries connected with both construction and railway, and last, but not least important to the EU Commission, our main investor, and Finland and Poland, our partners in Rail Baltica implementation,” says Baiba Rubesa, CEO and Chairperson of the Management Board of the joint venture RB RAIL.

The Rail Baltica Intergovernmental agreement is laying down the principles of the development of the new railway interconnection: the route, deadlines, technical parameters, funding conditions and ownership issues. It was signed on January 31, 2017, by Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas, Latvian Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis, and Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis in Tallinn.

The text of the Agreement can be found on http://www.railbaltica.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Intergovernmental_Agreement_2017.pdf.