31.07.2013
Last night, representatives of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland reached an agreement in Brussels to establish a joint venture, Rail Baltic.
The joint declaration must be signed by the transport ministers of five more countries at an informal transport council meeting in Vilnius in September, the Ministry of Economy announced.
Only after signing the joint declaration can you start looking for a company manager and the necessary specialists.
"The goal of the joint venture is to be the promoter of the Rail Baltic project, to be the recipient of European Union funds, their user, and then the signatory of all kinds of construction contracts, research contracts, and so on," explained Miiko Peris, advisor to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, to "Aktuaalsele kaamera".
It is precisely because of funding issues that the establishment of the joint venture is being rushed, as this will allow the relevant applications to be prepared for the European Commission. The first opportunity to submit them should arise in the first half of next year.
"It takes time for a team to be formed, for the partners to clarify their roles, to agree on more details, and then to plan these projects. This requires real time. Probably a year, two, and time is already running out. 2014 is actually just around the corner," said Tõnis Tamme, a sworn attorney who participated in the legal analysis of Rail Baltic.
85 percent of the funding for Rail Baltic is expected to come from the Connecting Europe Facility. Both European and Nordic investment banks have also shown interest in Rail Baltic, which would take on around 10-15 percent of the project's financing.
According to Miiko Peris, the creation of a joint venture could be a serious sign for financiers that the Rail Baltic project will succeed.
"If you look around Europe, the creation of such companies for cross-border projects is exceptionally common and they have been done everywhere, and the fact that such a company exists also means that the parties understand that the project must also be implemented," said Peris.
It was agreed that in each Baltic country, the Rail Baltic joint venture infrastructure will initially remain with the specific country on whose territory the railway is located. Each shareholder will contribute 0,65 million euros each year for the next four years.
Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs Juhan Parts said that the agreement reached as a result of the negotiations is very welcome. The company created by the shareholders' agreement will initially be owned by the three Baltic states, but the declaration leaves the possibility for Finland and Poland to join the company.
The declaration establishing the joint venture may be signed by the transport ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland as early as September.
Rail Baltic is a high-speed railway line from Tallinn to the Polish border, with a designed speed of 240 km/h. No existing railway lines will be transferred to the joint venture.
Allikas: ERR Uudised, http://uudised.err.ee/v/eesti/6613640b-c718-4390-8cd4-c7d613bda775
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