On Thursday 28 June on the sidelines of the European Council, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaité, Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas, and his Latvian and Polish counterparts, Märis Kueinskis and Mateusz Morawiecki, signed a political roadmap for the synchronisation of the Baltic States’ electricity network with the continental European network by the target date of 2025.
According to their agreement, once the green light has been received from the high level group on the Baltic energy market integration plan (BEMIP), in September, the Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian transmission system operators (TSO) will launch a formal procedure to be managed by the European network of transmission system operators (ENTSO-E).
Juncker and the leaders of the countries concerned pointed out that funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) would be essential for the success of the project.
The three Baltic States, former USSR republics, remain attached to the Russian and Belarusian electricity network, which mean they are exposed to possible power cuts by Russia. In order to reduce their dependency on the latter, the EU is encouraging them to connect to the European continental network via the Polish network.
The construction, in 2016, of the LitPol Link between Lithuania and Poland is a first stage along these lines but additional links are needed to ensure complete synchronisation. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)