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

The first meeting at the ministerial level takes place on April 12 when Estonian economy minister Juhan Parts will present to his colleagues the Estonian position.

Although each member state has to carry out the preliminary project and evaluation of environmental effects by themselves, the position of Estonia is that the joint venture should be created as fast as possible. "It is important that the company would start looking at the project as a whole, would represent the business interests of the project in the planning stage and the stage of compiling the preliminary project, prepare financing of the project, development and marketing issues," Parts explained at the government press conference on Thursday.

The joint venture should be the developer of the project and later infrastructure administer and operator.

Estonia thinks that Riga is the suitable location for the joint venture. The share capital should be equal among members but its size hasn’t been divided. "The range in the 2014-2017 period is not over 2 million euros," Parts said.

Parts said that Finland and Poland will also be offered to participate as shareholders.