The Baltic states must work together to secure European Union funding for the Rail Baltica project in the bloc’s 2028-34 budget, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said Thursday.
“Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania should fight for the 2028-34 multiannual budget funding for Rail Baltica. The Connecting Europe Facility is the designated tool for this,” Sinkevičius told reporters in Riga.
The Lithuanian PM said the project was moving forward despite construction difficulties and legal disputes involving several contractors.
“Despite what is happening on the ground, I think we see progress; the project is moving forward and is no longer just at the discussion level,” he said.
Several contractors are currently in litigation with LTG Infra, the infrastructure arm of Lithuania’s state-owned railway group. One of them is Italian construction company Rizzani de Eccher, whose contract to build Rail Baltica’s longest bridge in the Baltic states, in Jonava, Lithuania, was terminated after about half the work had been completed.
