30.05.2025
Siim Kallas' speech at the Mobility Conference 2025 in Tallinn, May 29th at the Von Krahl Theater.
Indeed – for what? And who is this “we”? On 19 November 2013, the European Parliament approved the establishment of a strategic transport network consisting of nine corridors. Austrian Jörg Leichtfried said in his speech: “I have always been firmly against everything that Commissioner Kallas does. He is a liberal and anti-working class. But today I say – excellent! Well done! Kudos to the Commission and Commissioner Kallas!
I still remember that. Just as I remember the disapproval, contempt, denial, anger, and discontent with which the creation of the European transport network, including the Rail Baltica high-speed railway, was received by the Estonian public.
A popular movement against Rail Baltica was created. Today it has subsided. Governments have consistently implemented the Estonian part of the Rail Baltica project, although every effort has been made to erect all kinds of obstacles on this path. My great respect goes to those officials and employees who have done and are doing daily work on this project, persistently, without giving up.
Popular movements with the collective name “against” move from one large object to another. Nursipalu, a pulp mill, a chicken farm, wind farms.
Whose project is Rail Baltica?
You watch “Aktuaalse Kamera” and you are convinced every day that Europe is not “us”. Europe is spoken of in the third person. Europe is “them”. Who do not do anything the way we would like.
And Rail Baltica is therefore "their" project.
Since the middle of the 19th century, Estonian “leaders of the people” (as Jannsen, Jakobson, Hurta, Koidula were called) were looking for a balance between the opposing subjugation efforts of two great nations – the Germans and the Russians. There is only one nation left that still wants to subjugate us – Russia. Only one. And our railway network is of Russian width – 1520 mm. This is no coincidence. Today, our railway network is part of the entire railway network of Russia. Part of Russia as a whole and part of Russia’s influence.
Is Europe a whole of which Estonia is a part, or is Russia a whole of which Estonia is a province?
Today it is clear that Europe as a whole can stand against Russia's aggressive imperialism (which will never disappear).
It is clear that Russia is doing everything possible to prevent and slow down the construction of this railway. For them, this is a matter of principle. And they have a considerable number of like-minded people in our country as well.
No European country today can weather today's major storms alone. Cooperation is needed. The construction of cooperation began in 1950 under the leadership of Jean Monnet, when it was decided to combine German and French heavy industry, at that time the basis of military power. Today, the energy network, security policy, the defense industry, and many other areas are being combined.
The transport network is one of the most important, it was started in the 1960s and will inevitably continue to be so. If desired, peripheral countries like Estonia can be left out. As the heart surgeon told me in response to my question “is major heart surgery really necessary?” – it is not necessary, you can live. I understand. The operation took place.
Johann Köler, Carl Robert Jakobson, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald were all Russian-oriented.
The people did not particularly like Jakob Hurta, the intellectual leader who led the "party of the churchmen", who, in addition to creating a national culture, tried to turn the Estonian people towards Europe.
Jakob Hurt gave a major speech at the first general song festival on June 20, 1869. He had several wishes for the Estonian people.
"First, let's cultivate and develop an understanding of the general income, because it is lacking among Estonians. If there is something general to be done, then usually 10 people are against it and maybe 2 are for it. The majority ask what will benefit me from it. Let's think about the benefit of the people."
Rail Baltica is an expensive major project. It is not a social project to support the poor, from which many will receive a small kopeck. There are many in the Estonian public who want the railway to be cheap, rather free, and to run through Estonia, stopping at every village.
People have the illusion that opposing major pan-European projects, including our own defense force bases and our new factories, is in the national interest. No trees will be cut down, no black soldiers will walk around here, no wind farm propeller will spin. Estonia must not change. Everything must be as it was before. This also prevents the fear that others, Latvians and Lithuanians, will benefit more from the whole project than we do.
What prevents the development of a large transport network in many countries, including the Baltics?
National interests that put their own interests above all else and try to reap any benefit, no matter how small, at the expense of others.
How to overcome them?
This is a European project and strong leadership by the European Union is essential to its implementation. We need money, but not only that. We need a fist that will force all countries to do what they themselves have agreed to.
Many Estonian leaders have dreamed of an Estonia that is bigger than its borders. From time to time, we have reached beyond our borders – sometimes it's the e-world, sometimes supporting Ukraine.
Rail Baltica is precisely the project that will help Estonia reach beyond its borders and connect us not only with rails, but also with Europe in symbolic meaning.
How did this story make you feel?
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