“Transport ministers are scheduled to meet at the end of July. Then we will try to look for that legal form that would be acceptable to all countries unless we are too busy with the [EU Council] presidency tasks,” he told the reporters at the Seimas (parliament) on Wednesday.
“We will agree by September for sure,” Sinkevičius added.
The Seimas Committee on European Affairs on Wednesday decided to support the idea to set up a European economic interest grouping (EEIG) instead of a joint venture. However, the MPs are not unalterably opposed to the joint venture idea.
According to Sinkevičius, Lithuania was ahead of schedule in implementing the Rail Baltica project. “We have done everything to speed up the implementation of the project and we are ready to keep up with that speed.”
Lithuania has already asked the European Commission to evaluate the EEIG model it proposes for building the Rail Baltica 2 line, which would link Poland with Finland through Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Sinkevičius has said on more than one occasion that Estonia and Latvia are very interested in the construction of a trans-European line because they do not have European-standard railways.
