Round table discussion dedicated to Rail Baltica project held in Lithuania
“The project “Rail Baltica” as the train itself firmly moved forward” Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania Rimantas Sinkevičius at the Parliament said when opening the round table discussion “Rail Baltica: an open glance at the present and future of the project”.
According to the press release of Lithuania's Ministry for Transport and Communications, the Minister highlighted that one of the most important moments of the present is the joint Lithuania’s, Latvia’s and Estonia’s application for the EU co-funding, which was submitted 16 February 2016. The list of works settled on the application included the construction of “Rail Baltica” railway line from Kaunas towards the Latvian border, a direction of a priority for both the partners and the European Commission.
As far as the role in the implementation of the project of joint venture “RB RAIL” goes, Rimantas Sinkevičius underlined that Lithuania sees joint venture as a strong coordinator and a guarantee of the interoperability at the borders. The Minister stressed the significance of the joint venture in ensuring the compatibility of the partner countries and noted that the point in question of the joint venture as one of the “Rail Baltica” infrastructure manager is premature at this stage.
As a noteworthy and topical issue for the implementation of project “Rail Baltica”, the Minister emphasized the joint preparations with Poland. “We cannot create an isolated high-speed railway network in the Baltic States, if our gate to the Europe, that is Poland, does not plan such kind of developments. I appeal to partners and invite to resolve the issue of the 1435 mm gauge development together with Poland” said the Minister.
The European Coordinator for the North Sea-Baltic core network corridor Catherine Trautmann and executive director of joint venture “RB RAIL” Baiba Rubess were present that the round table discussion. The discussion was also attended by the representatives of the European Commission, Latvia and Estonia, as well as the members of Lithuanian Parliament.
