The next decisions regarding the coverage of the remaining costs of Baltic join company RB Rail are expected by April, as LETA was told by RB Rail Council Chairman Arenijs Jackus.
He said that on the 11th of February the Latvian government approved the allocation of EUR 3.34 million towards RB Rail’s budget in order to cover Latvia’s co-financing commitments for RB Rail costs for 2024 and this year. “This is not the full amount of the budget needs and discussions on the remaining part of the funding will continue,” he said.
According to him, the Board of RB Rail has decided to temporarily postpone non-essential and ineligible costs, especially those for which there is no Latvian budget allocation, until financing decisions are taken. These precautions are supposed to reduce financial risks by postponing only those activities that can be postponed without endangering the project in the short term.
Jackus added that regarding the discussion of the remaining budget needs, the company is confident that a solution will be found that will allow RB Rail to continue the full scope of activities specified in the Project Management Agreement between the three countries.
At the same time, the joint venture, in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport in Latvia, will continue to participate in government discussions on cost allocation and financing solutions, and further decisions are expected by April 2025, Jackus noted.
He summarized that the implementation of the Rail Baltica project will continue as planned, continuing the dialogue with the Latvian government to ensure coherence in financial planning and decision-making.
LETA previously reported that on the 11th of February this year, the government supported the decision to redistribute EUR 3.345 million from two Ministry of Transport budget programs to cover indirect costs for RB Rail.
However, earlier, the Chairman of the Board of RB Rail Marko Kivila told LETA that the necessary co-financing from the Latvian budget for the financing of indirect activities of RB Rail in 2025 amounts to more than EUR 9 million.
Commenting on the situation with RB Rail’s outstanding costs, Latvian Minister of Transport Kaspars Briškens told LETA that there are numerous other activities that require additional funding. However, he believes that EUR 3.4 million is a positive signal to Lithuania and Estonian colleagues that Latvia is moving towards covering costs while also working on reduction of costs at the same time.
The ministry’s representatives told LETA that the total necessary financing amount for Rail Baltica project reaches EUR 62.267 million for 2025. This is EUR 13.779 million less than the amount predicted in mid-December 2024.
More on this topic: Minister: Rail Baltica will require another EUR 62 million in Latvia this year