Baltic PMs: Rail Baltic joint venture documents must be drafted by end-July

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The prime ministers of the Baltic countries agreed during their meeting in Jurmala, Latvia on Thursday that the documents related to the joint venture for the Rail Baltic rail link project must be drawn up by the end of July at the latest.

The project for the new nuclear power plant in Visaginas, Lithuania must be made economically attractive for all the parties, the Estonian government said on its Facebook page.

Estonia has expressed support for the N-plant project over a period of six years. «We have supported the N-plant project on the condition that it has to be economically profitable,» Andrus Ansip said.

The Estonian prime minister added however that many questions remain on the Visaginas project, the Estonian government press office said.

The Baltic heads of government are of the opinion that isolation of the Baltic countries from the rest of Europe in energy has to be solved as quickly as possible. Ansip said that all projects in the Baltic energy market interconnection package -- the Lithuania-Poland and Estonia-Finland links, improving the links between the Baltic countries, expanding the Incukalns gas storage facility, and a LNG terminal on the shores of the Gulf of Finland -- have to be carried out.

The prime minister of Estonia informed his colleagues that the European Commission, which will evaluate the Estonian and Finnish projects as an independent party, has been brought in to decide about the location of the regional LNG terminal.

«An open and independent selection process should provide a terminal that is best suited for the region,» Ansip was quoted by spokespeople as saying.

Speaking about transport projects, the parties emphasized the importance of Rail Baltic in connecting the Baltic countries with the rest of Europe. «Now the implementation of Rail Baltic depends purely on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and also Finland. We need to be active in order to be ready for the financing rounds of Connecting Europe Facility,» Ansip said.

The joint venture for Rail Baltic has to be established before the end of this year to be ready to apply for funds at the beginning of 2014. Over a period of four years each country must pay up to 5.3 million euros into the joint venture.

The government of Estonia already has made a decision on that and earmarked the necessary money in the state budget. The Latvian government is due to discuss the subject of payment at the beginning of June.

Lithuania's Transport Minister Rimantas Sinkevicius earlier this week proposed to scrap the idea to set up a joint Baltic venture for the Rail Baltic project and suggested that a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), which would tackle the issues related with the project, could be established instead.

The Estonian prime minister attended an informal meeting of prime ministers of the Baltic Council of Ministers in the Latvian sea resort Jurmala on Thursday which discussed regional transport and energy projects, the Visaginas nuclear power plant, Rail Baltic and regional energy security. Also under discussion were possibilities for cooperation in energy saving, reform of the Baltic Council of Ministers and joint commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Chain.

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