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

Jose Manuel Barroso and Baltic Premiers in Tallinn. Photo: valitsus.ee

The working groups met on Saturday, June 22^nd, in Tallinn; it was the 10th meeting. The Lithuanians had had the most stipulations, demanding that Vilnius, the national capital, also be connected to the line. Earlier this year, Estonia and Lithuania had been close to a diplomatic row over comments made by Estonia's then economy minister regarding the Lithuanians' unbending stance.

"We reached a common understanding and there are articles in the shareholders' agreement that are a very important part, that Vilnius is a part of the Rail Baltica project," said Lithuanian economic affairs ministry department head Arenijus Jackus on ETV.

Rail Baltica Estonia project manager Indrek Sirp said the Vilnius connection can start to be developed when EU financing is in place. Currently it is not.

"It was also agreed that [the Vilnius connection] cannot slow down the work on the main line, which is via Kaunas toward Poland," said Sirp on ETV.

The Baltics, along with Poland and Finland, signed the memorandum of intent for the joint venture last September.

The joint venture will be headquartered in Riga, while each national segment of the railway will remain property of the respective state.