Baltic and Polish leaders urged the EU to allocate necessary funding for the Rail Baltica railway project under the EU’s multiannual financial framework in 2028-2034, the Office of the President of Lithuania reported. In a joint letter to European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the leaders reaffirmed the commitment of the four countries to complete the project during the EU’s next budget period. They insisted that the railway project must remain one of the EU’s top infrastructure priorities, highlighting its strategic importance for Europe as a whole. The leaders called for a dedicated funding line for the project from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility, seeking at least EUR 10bn of funding. At the same time, they are pushing for meaningful reductions in project costs, International Railway Journal reports. The European Commission has proposed reducing the share of EU co-financing for the project from 85% to 75%, ERR reports.
Earlier, the Baltic States postponed the deadline for completing Rail Baltica’s first phase from 2030 to 2034. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal assured that the new timetable would result in lower costs, ERR reported. However, Anvar Salomets, CEO of Rail Baltic Estonia, said that the later deadline would reduce technical risks but could increase costs due to inflation, ERR reported. Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Transport Minister, Juras Taminskas, expressed hope that the upcoming change in government in Latvia would help move the project forward, BNS reported. He noted that Estonia and Lithuania were keeping to project deadlines, while Latvia was facing delays. Latvian Transport Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said that the new government would have to reassess the project’s financing, given funding shortfalls, uncertain EU support, and escalating costs, LETA reported. Speaking in an interview with TV3, Kozlovskis stated that Latvia could no longer continue to implement the project as before.