In Sofia on Wednesday 18 April, on the sidelines of the informal meeting of European energy ministers and in the presence of Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and government representatives of the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and Poland, an EU subsidy agreement for €125,000 was signed as part of the Connecting Europe Facility, for a technical study to pursue the synchronisation process for the electricity networks of the Baltic States with the European continental network via the Polish network. The signatories to the agreement were the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) and the representatives of the Transmission System Operators (TSO) of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The study in question aims to support work undertaken by the TSO of the above four countries to identify the very best solution for complete synchronisation between the Baltic and Polish electricity networks.
The Commission and the governments of the three Baltic States agreed, end 2017, to find a political agreement by June 2018.
The Baltic and Polish heads of state and government reaffirmed, during a meeting with the president of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, during the last European Council on 22 March, that they were committed to finalising synchronisation of the electricity grid of Baltic States with the European continental electricity network by 2025 (see EUROPE 11987). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)