Latvia’s new prime minister, Andris Kulbergs, suggested “scaling down” the Rail Baltica railway project, ERR reported. Speaking at a joint press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal in Tallinn, Kulbergs said that he was looking at a potential solution to the project’s funding gap that would be “out of the box.” He said that the solution would entail scaling down the project as much as possible. Meanwhile, Latvian Transport Minister Rihards Kozlovskis noted that the railway project could only be implemented with EU funding, LETA reported. Speaking in an interview with TV3, Kozlovskis called on the Baltic States to stop undermining each other in relation to the project. Earlier, the project’s central coordinating entity, RB Rail, estimated that the construction of Rail Baltica’s main line in Latvia was 2.3 times more expensive than in Estonia and 66% more expensive than in Lithuania, LETA reported. Latvia is currently short EUR 3.7bn needed to complete the project on schedule, ERR reported.
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