Brussels, 11/04/201 (Agence Europe) -European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas recently took the Latvian government to task, saying that the absence of political goodwill on the part of Riga risks compromising the whole of the “Rail Baltica” railway project, linking the three Baltic states to Germany and Poland.
“It is very important for the Baltic countries to have good land connections. Finland is also very interested in the implementation of the project and is extremely disappointed by the delay which has accumulated”, Kallas said on 6 April in an interview with the Latvian daily newspaper Latvijas Avize (our translation). He went on to point out that the EU could support the project financially, but that the decision to invest in it must be made by the member state directly concerned. In another Latvian magazine, “Ir”, the spokesperson to Kallas, Helen Kearns, said that the implementation of the “Rail Baltica” project in Latvia had been unsatisfactory for a long time and that the situation could contribute to losing European co-funding.
Due to the economic crisis, Latvia has frozen until 2012 the funding of the Rail Baltica project, which crosses its territory, notifying the Commission that it would be able to fulfil its commitments by 2015 (instead of 2012). Concerned at further delays, however, the Commission has decided to reduce the funding of Rail Baltica. €43.5 million, €10.1 million of which funded by the European budget, are currently earmarked to complete this project of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), whereas initially, the Latvian application was for €97 million, €22.3 million of which were to be co-funded by the EU. Despite the problems, the Latvian government assured EUROPE that the completion of the Rail Baltica project was still seen as a priority. The achievement of a further railway line linking Riga with Moscow, which the Latvian government is currently considering, would not contradict the completion of Rail Baltica, stated a spokesperson to Latvia's permanent representation to the EU. (A.By./transl.fl)