Only Lithuania opposes Rail Baltic joint venture

BNS
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Photo: Toomas Tatar/ Postimees

At a meeting of the Rail Baltic work group in Helsinki on Thursday all parties to the project bar Lithuania supported establishment of a joint venture to implement the high-speed railway project.

«In Helsinki Lithuania's proposal to form a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) was once again thoroughly weighed. Meanwhile statements of official position had been received from Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Poland, as well as the European Commission. None of the above-mentioned was in favor of setting up an EEIG instead of a limited liability company,» spokesman for the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications Rasmus Ruuda told BNS.

«A limited liability company is common practice in Europe whereas both the Commission and the European Investment Bank regard an EEIG as something unusual,» he explained.

In his words, an EEIG would entail limitless liability accompanied by direct financial expenses. What's more, in order to establish it several tax and other laws would have to be changed.

«Thus, work continues with a limited liability company. In this framework all the partner countries have expressed readiness to find a solution to the question of infrastructure ownership in Lithuania,» the spokesman said.

He underlined that it is important to move ahead with the project and a joint venture would be a big step closer to the realization of the project.

The next meeting of the work group is scheduled for July 15 in Brussels.

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