Ministers of five countries sign Rail Baltic joint venture agreement

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Photo: Priit Simson

Transport ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland on Monday signed a declaration on the establishment of a joint venture for the Rail Baltic railway project in Vilnius.

The agreement was reached after Estonia had agreed to include Vilnius in the Lithuanian part of the project.

«International transportation cooperation projects are voluminous and a lot of work has to be done to reach compromises, and while we are moving a step forward today, it still has to be kept in mind that a significantly longer road is still ahead,» Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts was quoted by the ministry's spokespeople as saying.

According to Parts the hiring of a professional management is of crucial importance for the joint venture to be successful. "I see the joint venture of Rail Baltic as a strong competence center which would be led by the best experts in the world," he added.

The joint company will be founded by the three Baltic countries but according to the agreement Finland and Poland have a chance to join later as shareholders. The headquarters for the venture will be situated in Riga but all three countries would make a contribution worth 650,000 euros per year.

It was also agreed upon that the shareholders' agreement of the limited liability company would be ready at the beginning of 2014 and that the parties will apply for funding from the European Union in the amount of 85 percent of the whole sum needed to carry out the project.

Lihtuania's Transport Minister Rimantas Sinkevicius previously announced that Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian transport ministers wouldn't be signing the declaration on Monday in Vilnius because the talks would continue since Estonia was not supporting involving Vilnius in the project.

Rail Baltic is a projected conventional high-speed railway stretching from Tallinn to the border of Poland, the planned speed of which would be 240 kilometers per hour.

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