EUR 62 million will be necessary continue activities associated with Rail Baltica railway project in Latvia this year, said Latvian Minister of Transport Kaspars Briškens during a meeting of the Latvian government’s Rail Baltica Project Implementation Committee on Wednesday, the 12th of February.
“The total bill was discussed at the meeting and the current estimate of the shortfall is just over EUR 60 million,” said the minister, adding that on Tuesday, the 11th of February, the government supported the provision of EUR 3.4 million to help cover the costs of RB Rail.
Briškens explained the initial estimate was more than EUR 70 million. However, corrections constantly continue in relation to various financial provisions. Information has been received from the European Commission about the next financial breach, so it was possible to partially compensate certain activities.
“The probability that the necessary funding for the Rail Baltica project will not have an impact on the state budget is not high. The question will be how to find an opportunity to cover these EUR 62 million within the framework of the budget. In the budget of the Ministry of Transport, it is impossible to absorb this kind of amount at the expense of other activities, so it will be a difficult political discussion how to identify these sources,” said Briškens.
He explained that most of the costs are related to Riga Airport and Riga Central Station.
The Ministry of Transport has informed the government of these specific costs. However, the funding was not included in this year’s budget plan.
“It was important for the government to agree on the first-round implementation scenario in Latvia, which succeeded. Now there are no conceptual obstacles to making these decisions, but the challenge is related to the budget process, because it is necessary to understand what are the potential financial instruments to find the missing funding,” added the minister.
When asked whether litigation proceedings could take place in connection with unpaid invoices, the Minister indicated that the Ministry of Transport has revealed in the information report that several invoices should have been paid this January, so the Ministry of Transport signals that these invoices must be paid in order not to incur legal consequences.
“The Board of “Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas” (EDzL) has managed to establish a constructive dialogue with the construction company, and at the moment it has not escalated in such legal processes. However, if we continue to hesitate with such decisions, such consequences cannot be excluded,” added the minister.
Commenting on the situation with covering the remaining expenses of RB Rail, the minister noted that there are a number of other activities where additional funding is needed, but in his opinion, EUR 3.4 million is a positive signal to Lithuanian and Estonian colleagues that Latvia is moving towards paying the bills, while continuing to work on reducing costs.
He added that the meeting also addressed the topic of Riga airport and financing from EU funds.
The minister stressed that in order to be able to complete the works in the southern part of Riga Central Station within the deadline set by the Recovery Fund, government decisions are needed immediately, as well as a solution to finance these activities.
The minister explained that the Ministry of Finance has promised to provide an opinion on the necessary pre-financing this week, as well as he does not foresee significant opposition to this solution. “In total, it is about the redistribution of EUR 114 million from the Recovery Fund “Rail Baltica” for the realization of the southern part of the Central Station. Pre-financing of approximately EUR 13.3 million is required to carry out the preparatory work accordingly, for which the Ministry of Transport has prepared a separate information report,” added the minister.
The Ministry of Transport told LETA that the total additional funding required for the Rail Baltica project this year amounts to EUR 62.267 million, which is EUR 13.779 million less than projected in mid-December last year.
Including EUR 37.659 million necessary for the completion of construction works, indexation, final payments, design and disposal of land. RB Rail, excluding the approved EUR 3.4 million, still needs EUR 7.034 million. To cover the costs of the EDzL, it requires EUR 6.761 million, while the construction supervision and other costs necessary for the implementation of the CEF10 project, which are not eligible for EU funding, amount to EUR 10.813 million.
At the same time, the Ministry of Transport points out that it is necessary to make a decision on the missing EUR 19.079 million, and in April 2025 – on the missing EUR 43.188 million.
LETA previously reported that on Tuesday, the 11th of February, the Latvian government supported the allocation of EUR 3.345 million towards to cover indirect costs of RB Rail from two of the ministry’s budget programmes.