“Putting together the EU budget and planning must come from wartime mentality. Lithuania has identified over 20 military mobility infrastructure projects worth up to EUR 4 billion, most of which concerns the Via Baltica project. These will facilitate mobility of military vehicles and ensure compatibility with EU and NATO requirements,” at the event in Vilnius said Vice Minister of National Defence O. Mašalė whose area of competence covers military mobility.
Vice Minister noted that Lithuania prioritized land infrastructure, i.e. roads and railway, in the area.
“We are grateful to the Ministry of Transport and Communications and colleagues of other sectors for the ongoing and military mobility-focused projects. However, capabilities of Lithuania alone are not enough: the pace of shaping the EU budget have to reflect the current security environment. We have to ensure a consistent financing of the European Infrastructure Network Fund, maintain an operational network of military mobility corridors, deepen the NATO-EU cooperation in order to simplify and streamline military mobility steps, as well as to implement critical infrastructure protection solutions while increasing resilience and security against hybrid threats,” said Vice Minister of National Defence presenting concrete proposals.
The Bucharest Nine was established in 2015 by nine Central and Easter European countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary in response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
