Latvia should seek a greater share of funding for the Rail Baltica railway project from a broader range of European Union financial instruments rather than relying primarily on its current funding sources, Member of the European Parliament Roberts Zīle has said.
Speaking in an interview with Latvian Television’s Rīta panorāma on Monday, Zīle argued that Latvia has not made sufficient use of the various EU funding programmes available.
According to the MEP, Latvia has financed most of the project through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), while also securing limited support from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility for the Rail Baltica connection to Riga Central Station. By contrast, neighbouring countries have successfully obtained financing from several other EU funds.
Zīle noted that the new EU multiannual budget allocates 50 billion euros to the main fund supporting projects such as Rail Baltica. However, the three Baltic states together would require around 10 billion euros from that fund alone.
“Expecting to receive one-fifth of the entire budget is unrealistic,”
he said, adding that Latvia will therefore have to secure financing from additional EU funding sources.
The MEP also said Latvia has not yet absorbed all of the cohesion funding available under the current EU budget, which amounts to roughly 2 billion euros.
According to Zīle, if contracts covering the full allocation are not signed by August, the unused funding will simply be lost.
Looking ahead, Zīle said he does not expect Latvia to face severe sanctions if Rail Baltica is not completed by the target date of 2030. Nevertheless, he stressed that the country must continue demonstrating tangible progress on the project.
In his view, the greatest consequence of significant delays could be that Latvia finds it more difficult to secure EU funding for other major infrastructure projects in the future.
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