The presidents of the Baltic States and Poland met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the transport of Ukrainian grain through EU ports, ERR reports. Estonian President Alar Karis noted that shipping Ukrainian grain via Baltic ports required cooperation with Poland. Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament,…
The Estonian government has agreed on the state budget for 2024, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced, ERR reports. Under the agreement, the government will introduce no new taxes in addition to ones implemented earlier. The government will not impose a new tax on commercial banks, which will instead pay more taxable dividends. Also, the government…
The network of public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations is growing rapidly in the Baltic States, ERR reports. Estonia has 0.57 EV charging stations, Latvia 2.38 stations, and Lithuania 0.93 stations for every 10 EVs registered. The total number of charging stations amounts to 311 in Estonia, 532 in Latvia, and 1,018 in Lithuania. Meanwhile,…
The Russian NGO, Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which was founded by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, has asked the Baltic States to reconsider a ban on cars with Russian licence plates, LRT reports. FBK chairwoman Maria Pevchikh published letters that the organisation sent to Baltic governments, arguing that the ban undermined and discredited sanctions against…
The Baltic States have banned motor vehicles with Russian license plates from entering, ERR reports. Earlier, the European Commission issued new guidelines on EU sanctions, according to which cars registered in Russia are not allowed to enter EU territory. The ban applies to the entry of both commercial and private vehicles through the borders with…
The European Commission (EC) is not considering paying subsidies to cover the cost of transporting Ukrainian grain through Baltic ports, EC Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis stated. Speaking in an interview with BNS, Dombrovskis said that the EC may provide financing for removing administrative or infrastructure bottlenecks, however. Also, the EC supported Lithuania’s proposal to move customs,…
Many Estonian companies continue doing business with Russia, ERR reports. Altogether 500-600 Estonian businesses still trade goods with Russia. The total value of goods exported from Estonia to Russia has not changed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when it amounted to EUR 50-70mn per month. This is partly due to the rise…
A public petition against the Estonian government’s planned car tax collected 65,565 signatures by its close on 31 August 2023, ERR reports. The Estonian Car Owners Association (EAOL) initiated the petition in the middle of July 2023. The number of signatures is the highest ever for public petitions on the Citizen Initiative Portal (Rahvaalgatus). The…
Latvia’s total volume of passenger traffic by all modes of transport increased in the first half of 2023, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau, LSM reports. The number of passengers carried by land transport totalled 93.1mn, which was 22.9% more than a year earlier. Regular bus traffic carried altogether 52mn passengers, which was…