President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker, Estonia's Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas and Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipilä will be taking part in the signing ceremony for the gas interconnector construction project, the Baltic Connector, which will link up Estonia and Finland under the Baltic Sea. The signing ceremony will take place on the sidelines of the European Council in Brussels on Friday 21 October.
The Estonian gas network operator Elering and the Finnish publicly owned company Baltic Connector OY signed a cooperation agreement on Wednesday 19 October. This will allow for the construction of the section of the Baltic Connector under the sea that will link the gas transmission systems of Estonia and Finland.
Under the terms of the agreement, the section of the Baltic Connector built under the sea will be 80 km long and jointly owned by Elering and Baltic Connector OY.
The two companies will be responsible for construction on their respective national territories of 70 km of the Baltic Connector’s terrestrial route.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be around €250 million, but 75% of this will be covered by EU financial support. Elering and the Baltic Connector OY will sign a subsidy agreement with the European Commission worth €187.5 million.
The Baltic Connector will have a capacity of 2.6 billion m³ year. Infrastructure should be up and running by 2020. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)