Liberals and centrists win Baltic Europarliament seats
Audit: Rail Baltica faces cost overruns, delays, fragmented management
Liberal and centrist conservative parties gained the most votes in the European Parliament elections in the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in results announced at midnight between June 9 and 10.
Latvia’s centrist-liberal New Unity (JV) gained 25.7 % of the vote, in Lithuania, the conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) got 20.92 % and in Estonia the conservative nationalist Fatherland (Isamaa)party scored 21.6 %.
According to preliminary results from the Latvian Central Election Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, the current European Commissioner for Trade, was re-elected from JV along with Sandra Kalniete, also an incumbent.
In Estonia, former Prime Minister Juri Ratas and Riho Terras, an incumbent MEP and a will go to the EP from Isamaa. In Lithuania, TS-LKD will send Andrius Kubilius, Rasa Juknevičienė and Paulius Saudargas to the EP.
Coming in second in Latvia with 22,08% is the nationalist-conservative National Alliance (NA) which will send veteran MEP Roberts Zile back to the EP along with newcomer and current member of the national parliament Rihards Kols.
Former Riga mayor Mārtiņš Staķis will represent the social democratic Progressives (Pro) in Brussels. Another former mayor, Nils Ušakovs, will return to Brussels and Strasbourg for a second term representing Harmony (S), who also call themselves social democrats but lost their places in the parliament or Saeima in the 2022 elections.
Also elected was former Latvian prime minister (1998-1999) Vilis Krištopans, who ran on the ticket of the populist Latvia First (LPV) party. Ivars Ijābs, running on the For Latvia’s Development (LA) ballot, was also re-elected.
Another newcomer will be Reinis Pozņaks from the centrist-conservative party alliance United List (AS), who is best known as the organizer of the so-called “Twitter Convoy” of volunteers bringing aid to Ukraine. He has no prior experience in politics.
In Estonia, the second place was taken by the Social Democrats (SDE) with 19.3% and will send Marija Kaljurand and Sven Mikser to the EP.
Social democrats also took second place in the Lithuanian vote and will send two MEPs to Brussels
Voter participation in all three countries was relatively low compared to the figures for national parliamentary elections or the recent presidential vote in Lithuania, where earlier EP votes coincided with the second round of presidential elections, but not this year.
In Latvia, 33.82 % of eligible voters participated, Central Election Commission head Kristine Saulite told Latvian Television. Estonia voter participation was 37.7 % Latvia and ib Lithuania 28.35%. Political analysts said the low turnout in Lithuania could be due to previous EP elections having been held at the same time as the second round of the country’s presidential elections, which was not possible this year.
Rail Baltica joint audit points to serious delays, drastic cost rise
Rail Baltica, one of the largest infrastructure projects aimed at linking the three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the high speed rail network of western Europe faces drastic cost increases, at least a five year delay in implementation, fragmented management and a risk of losing or being forced to repay European Union (EU) funding that was to cover around 85 % of the total project cost, a joint report of the state audit institutions of all three countries published June 12 said.
A pipe-dream high speed Rail Baltica train, not yet ordered for one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects. Image: Euronews
“According to the new cost-benefit analysis, the expected development costs of the Rail Baltica project have increased since 2017 from EUR 5.8 billion to EUR 23.8 billion in 2023,” the report said, noting that “This has increased the risk of securing timely funding, not only because the expected costs have increased, but also because the current European Union funding period ends in 2027. As the next funding period starts in 2028, a funding shortfall is likely to occur in 2027-2028. for the year.”
Inese Kalvāne, a department director at Latvia’s State Audit Office who presented the joint report in Riga cautioned that delays in design and planning work for the rail link created a serious risk, because if this work was not completed by 2026, the EU could ask that funds for all design and planning work to date be repaid.
“The completion of the project requires additional funds of EUR 2.7 billion in Estonia, EUR 7.6 billion in Latvia and EUR 8.7 billion in Lithuania,” the report said, but added that costs could be reduced under a two-phase implementation plan decided by the three governments that calls for a single track mainline instead of two tracks and fewer local station stops.
The report notes, however, that “the second phase of the project implementation will take place after trains have started to operate on the railway which is planned to take place in 2031. Currently there is no schedule for the second phase.”
The joint auditors’ report comes a day after the Latvian government agreed on a road map for the Rail Baltica project, but it postponed a report on finding ways to finance a likely multibillion euro deficit until the fall.
Minister of Tranport Kaspars Briškens acknowledged at Tuesday’s government meeting that the project is currently facing a multi-billion deficit.
The auditors’ report also noted that there was no single central management for the entire Rail Baltica project. “The only decision taken by the three Baltic States about infrastructure management is that there will be a separate independent manager in each country. Yet, there is still only interim infrastructure manager in Latvia,” the report said. It notes that while the national agencies have developed a plan of action to start operations on the rail link by 2030 “there is no mechanism to force the responsible ministries to make the decisions more quickly.”
Furthermore, the auditors state that “It was determined that the ministries had not decided on the model for acquiring the trains nor on the entity that was designated responsible for the task. If the decision is not taken soon, there is a risk that there will be no trains to operate on the railway in 2030/2031.”
The fragmentation of management among the three countries instead of a single decision -making institution for the whole project is understood to be the reason Canadian-Latvian Baiba Rubess left as board chairman of RB Rail AS, the company implementing the project in 2018, triggering a series of top management changes in later years.
The Rail Baltica project, an 870-kilometer railway line from the Estonian capital Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border, is the largest infrastructure project in the history of the Baltic states since their independence.
Stoltenberg: NATO will aid Ukraine short of direct involvement in conflict with Russia
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said June 11 that NATO was ready to give all necessary support to Ukraine to help it win its war against Russia but would stop short of direct conflict with Moscow such as cross-border air defense.
Asked ahead of the NATO B9 Eastern Flank summit in the Latvian capital Riga how NATO viewed the idea of countries bordering on Ukraine using their air defense missiles to protect adjacent parts of Ukraine, Stoltenberg said: “NATO and NATO allies have made it clear from the beginning that we are ready to support Ukraine.”
But he emphasized that “NATO allies have also made it clear that we will not be party to the conflict,” and explained that “At the same time, NATO has not sent in combat troops. We are not going to go into the conflict.”
Poland has recently scrambled fighter jets when it appeared Russian missiles and drones were coming close to its borders and Romania has also moved air defense missile batteries closer to it border with Ukraine and there has been some discussion of firing missiles across the border to shoot down Russian missiles and drones attacking Ukrainian cities and infrastructure near its western borders.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, Stoltenberg said “My focus now is to ensure that we have a successful summit in Washington in July, where we have to make important decisions on deterrence and defense, on support for Ukraine, and also on how to strengthen partnerships with our Indo-Pacific partners to address the challenges that China poses to our security.”
He emphasized the continued delivery of military aid and support to Ukraine saying “by communicating a long-term commitment to Ukraine, we're actually making it easier to end this war soon, because the more obvious it is for President Putin that he cannot wait us out, the further he may end up with the conclusion that he has to sit down and accept that Ukraine continues as a solely independent nation.”
Stoltenberg didn’t touch on the issue of whether the NATO summit in Washington in July would substantially move ahead with the issue of NATO membership for Ukraine. However Latvian president Rinkēvičs said “we want to see UA membership on the agenda” in Washington, a sentiment echoed by Estonia’s President Alar Karis and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in short statements to journalists ahead of the meeting.”
Leaders from seven of the nine B9 countries attended, with Slovakia and Hungary only sending ambassadors. Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristofferson and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, both representing recent NATO members, also attended the summit.
“Russia is an aggressive, imperialist country. Finland and Sweden joined NATO because of Russia's attack on Ukraine,” Stubb told journalists ahead of the B9 meeting at Riga Castle, the office and residence of the Latvian president.