The Agreement is aimed at ensuring the completion of the European standard gauge railway infrastructure in the territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by 2025 and providing for the EU and national co-financing.
“The Poles plan to complete their section of the railway by 2025, similarly as we do. What is important is the speed of 240 km/h envisaged in the Baltic States. The Poles currently state that they could guarantee the maximum speed of 160 km/h to the Lithuanian border. That is why we have a dilemma in Lithuania as we are not certain about the speed to be ensured in the section with the already existing gauge from Kaunas to the Polish border,” said Rokas Masiulis, Minister of Transport and Communications, during the presentation of the project.
The Agreement also defines the rights and obligations of the partners in the project, the coordination of the project implementation, and the mechanism for settlement of disputes. It also provides for the forms of cooperation with the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Finland and lays out the typical provisions of the Agreement such as its entry into force and duration, coordination of joint actions among the parties to the Agreement, procedure for amending the Agreement, conditions for withdrawal of the parties to the Agreement, and procedure for dispute settlement.
The Agreement has already been ratified by the Latvian and Estonian parliaments.
