EU – Baltic States, Technology, Transport

"Both Latvian and Lithuanian ministers expressed clear support of Estonia as the EU presidency and to our aspirations towards reaching an agreement at the discussions of the road transport package. As for the development of Rail Baltic and Via Baltica, all ministers at the meeting today (Nov.15) reaffirmed that these are priority projects," Simson said.

"In relation to Via Baltica we are realizing a project called Smart E67, the aim of which is to increase traffic safety and decrease travelling time. For example, electronic road signs and banners are to be installed on the highway. Participants of the given initiative include Estonia and Latvia and it will be finished in fall 2019. Of course, there was also talk of the construction of Via Baltica and in terms of Estonia we could confirm that we in the next few years are building a number of new 2+1 and 2+2 road sections in the total amount of 134 million euros," the minister said.

Topics discussed at the meeting of the ministers also included questions concerning the European Union's budget for the next period. "Estonia as the presidency has kept the topic of the future of the funding of pan-European transport connections on the agenda and for example, at the informal ministerial meeting held in Tallinn in September, all member states expressed support of the continuation of the CEF instrument. Estonia's standpoint is that during the new budgetary period, the priority definitely is cross-border transport projects and when funding and setting the participation percentage of the European Union, such projects must be favored which have already begun today and require finishing," Simson said.