Mõtteid peaministrite kohtumise järel

Esmaspäeval kohtusid Balti riikide ja Poola peaministrid Tallinnas, et arutada ühisteemasid regioonis. Olulise küsimusena oli arutelul Rail Baltica ja eriti Vilniuse lisamise küsimus trassile kuna eelnevatel läbirääkimistel pole osapooled selles küsimuses jõudnud konsensusele ja otsustati lahendada küsimus poliitilisel tasemel. Üldiselt lõppes kohtumine Rail Baltica jaoks soodsa tulemusega - otsustati, et Vilniuse küsimus ei ole mitte Leedu ja ülejäänud Balti riikide vaheline asi vaid Leedu ja Euroopa Komisjoni vaheline:

"Milline saab olema täpne trassi kulgemise joon, kas läbi Kaunase või läbi Kaunase ja Vilniuse või läbi Kaunase ning Vilnius saab ühendatud selle marsruudiga, on läbirääkimiste objekt Leedu ja Euroopa Komisjoni vahel,“ ütles peaminister.


Peaminister Ansip lisas, et Eesti jaoks on oluline projektiga kiiresti edasi liikuda ning et ettevalmistusprotsessi kiirus ei tohi saada takistuseks Euroopa Ühenduse Rahastu vahendite taotlemisel kevadel."

Samuti kinnitas Poola, et on Rail Baltica realiseerimisest huvitatud:

"Balti peaministrid andsid kohtumisega liitunud Poola peaministrile Donald Tuskile ülevaate Rail Balticuga seotud arengutest. Poola peaminister kinnitas, et Rail Balticu ettevalmistustööd Poola raudteetrassil on graafikus ja nad peavad kõikidest kokkulepetest kinni."

Tallinnas toimunud peaministrite kohtumine oleks pidanud olema lõplikuks kohaks kus erimeelsused Vilniuse osas lahendatakse. Kuigi kohtumise järel valitses üksmeel selle osas, et Rail Baltic on kõigile oluline transpordiprojekt, ei ole see praegusel hetkel kõige olulisem järeldus, sest võimaldab erimeelsusi projekti rajamise osas. Kahjuks tundub, et vaatamata teatele mille kohaselt Vilniuse küsimus on vaja lahendada Leedu ja Euroopa Komisjoni vaheliste läbirääkimistega, pole Leedu lõpetanud oma Balti naabrite töötlemist ja on säilitanud Vilniuse lisamise osas üsna jäiga positsiooni. Ehk Leedus kulgeva trassi osas on jätkuvalt erimeelsusi.


Leedu peaminister Butkevicius jätkas pärast kohtumist pressikonverentsil selgelt toonis mis viitas, et Leedu pole tegelikult loobunud Vilniuse trassile lisamise soovist. The Baltic Times vahendas kohtumise järel Butkeviciuse sõnu mille kohaselt Leedu loodab Euroopa Komisjoniga saada võimalikult kiirelt kokkuleppe Vilniuse lisamise osas. Butkevicius lisas, et Vilniuse lisamine trassile on vajalik ja  majanduslikult mõttekas. Tegelikult on see kontrastiks alles hiljutisele teatele mille kohaselt Vilniuse lisamine ei ole majanduslikult mõttekas, samuti pole Leedu oma tasuvusanalüüsiga valmis. Nii et majandusliku kasu või kasutuse väitmist praegu ei ole võimalik kindlalt teha. Uudisportaal Sekunde.lt vahendab uudisteagentuuri ELTA teadet mille kohaselt Butkeviciuse sõnul olevat Leedu üks osalevaid  riike ning on oluline rõhutada, et nagu kokku lepitud ühisdeklaratsioonis, siis Vilniuse ühendamist käsitletakse Rail Baltica projekti integraalse osana. Hämmastav ja üllatav seisukoht! Nagu RBR blog on mitmetel kordadel varem juba kirjutanud, siis Vilnius ei ole kiir-raudtee integraalne osa vaid ühendatakse põhitrassiga läbi vana trassi rekonstrueerimise.


Läti transpordiminister Anrijs Matīss on kohtumise järel intervjuus öelnud, et Vilniuse küsimus on ainuke takistus kokkuleppe saamiseks. Samas möönis ta, et ühest küljest Vilnius peaks küll olema Rail Baltica trassi osa, kuid teisest küljest tähendab see sikk-sakki mistõttu Rail Baltica mõte kiire otseteena muutub mõttetuks. See on RBR blogi seisukoht samuti, lisaks on Kaunas Leedu jaoks oluline sõlmpunkt. Kui Leedus jäävad peatusteks Kaunas ja Paneveźys, siis Leedu saab ka neist olulist kasu. Läti portaal Financenet vahendab BNSile antud kommentaari kus Matīss täpsemalt selgitab, et kiir-raudtee peaks liikuma mööda kiireimat ja sirgeimat teed läbi Tallinna, Riia, Kaunas ja Poola Euroopasse ning seetõttu Läti on toetamas Kaunase varianti. Nagu RBR blog varasemalt ka kajastas, siis Leedu sõnul Läti olevat toetamas Vilniuse varianti, kuigi selline seisukoht tuli ka Lätile endale tegelikult üllatusena. Pikem versioon Matissi interjuust on olemas LTV.lv veebilehel (ainult Läti keeles).


Kokkuvõtteks võib öelda, et Eesti ja Läti on üsna sarnasel seisukohal. Ning nende seisukoht on Rail Baltica rajamisel konstruktiivne ning edasi liikuv. Leedu samal ajal soovib jätkuvalt Vilniuse lisamist, kuid nii nagu Leedu seda soovib ei ole võimalik Vilniust lisada. Järelikult Leedu jätkuvalt jäik positsioon takistab Rail Baltica rajamist. Eesti ja Läti seisukoht on õige, et Vilniuse lisamine on Leedu ja EK vaheliste kõneluste teema, sest TEN-T ning CEF seadused on vastu võetud ja seal ei ole Vilniusele kohta. Leedu varasemalt ise määras Kaunase olema Rail Baltica sõlmpunktiks. Eesti ja Läti peaks kiiresti ettevalmistustega edasi minema ning olema valmis lähitulevikus CEF rahastusele taotlust esitama. Leedu järel praegu oodata ei saa, sest on üsna tõenäoline, et nemad peavad oma seisukohta muutma ja edasi tegutsema Kaunase alternatiiviga.

FOTO 1: Peaministrid Donald Tusk (PL), Laimdota Straujuma (LV), Andrus Ansip (EE) ja Algirdas Butkevičius (LT) Tallinna kohtumisel, 03.02.2014. Allikas

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 Summary in English: The prime ministers of Poland and the Baltic countries have gathered in Tallinn this Monday to discuss common interests of the countries. Among most important topics was Rail Baltic and especially the question of including Vilnius to the railroad track since previously on task force meeting it has been a tough subject to agree. Baltic countries have not reached a consensus earlier and therefore it has been decided to solve the question as a political decision on a political summit. In general the meeting has ended with a favorable outcome since parties agreed that Vilnius is not a question to solve between Lithuania and rest of the Baltic countries but it´s a question to be solved between Lithuania and European Commission:

"Which will be the exact line in Lithuania, will it go through Kaunas or through Kaunas and Vilnius simultaneously or through Kaunas and Vilnius will be connected to the railroad with another railroad, will remain a discussion between Lithuania and European Commission, said prime minister of Estonia.

Prime minister Ansip has said that it is very important to Estonia to move forward quickly with the process and that the speed of preparatory works can and must not become an obstacle for applying finance from Connecting Europe Facility in the spring."

In addition, Poland has confirmed that Poland is interested in realization of Rail Baltica project:

"Prime ministers of Baltic countries gave an overview to Polish prime minister Donald Tusk about the current affairs of Rail Baltica project development. Polish prime minister has confirmed that Rail Baltica preparatory works on Polsih railroads are in schedule and Poland holds on to all its previous agreements."

Political summit in Tallinn was supposed to be the one where all disagreements regarding Vilnius inclusion will be settled. Although there was an agreement between the parties after the meeting that Rail Baltic is an important transportation infrastructure project, it is not the most important conclusion at the moment because it keeps the door open for disagreements about the way of how the project will be constructed. Unfortunately it looks that way that despite the announcement that Vilnius question is to be solved with negotiations between Lithuania and European Commission, Lithuania has not softened it´s stiff rhetorics. This means that there are still disagreements, namely about the exact track alignment in Lithuania.

The prime minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Butkevicius, held similar rhetorics of Lithuania as it had before the summit. This implies that Lithuania does not want to give up on the wish to connect Vilnius. The Baltic Times covered Butkevicius´ in an interview after the summit according to which "Lithuania hopes to reach agreement with the European Commission on adding Vilnius to the Rail Baltica route as soon as possible and Lithuania supports the idea of all Baltic States participating in the project. Adding Vilnius to the "Rail Baltica" route is necessary and it's economically justified". Actually this statement is in stark contrast to recent statement by Lithuanian officials that Vilnius section is infeasible and needs financial support by EU. Besides, Lithuanians have not finished with Vilnius section cost benefit analysis and therefore it does not makes sense to claim that the section is either financially feasible of infeasible. News portal Sekunde.lt has published news story by news agency ELTA according to which Lithuania is one of the participating countries and it is important to emphasize that as agreed in joint statement in September, Vilnius should be treated as integral part of Rail Baltica. What an amazing and surprising statement! As RBR blog has written several times in the past, Vilnius section is not integral part of Rail Baltica. Instead it should and must be connected with upgrading existing track between Kaunas and Vilnius. 

 Latvian transport minister Anrijs Matīss said in the interview after the meeting that Vilnius is the only obstacle for reaching an agreement. He admitted that on one side Vilnius should be connected to Rail Baltica but on the other side this means that railroad track would do a zig-zag which is against the meaning of Rail Baltica or a high speed, direct connection. Basically this is as well position of RBR blog, in addition Kaunas is a major hub in Lithuania. If Lithuania would have only Kaunas and Paneveźys as stops then Lithania will still reap lots of benefits from the railroad. Latvian news portal Financenet covers BNS news story where Matīss explains more clearly that high speed railroad should go via most direct and straight track from Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and Poland to Europe and therefore Latvia supports Kaunas alternative. As RBR blog has written in the past, Lithuanians say that Latvia supports Lithuanian position on Vilnius, but as it turned out in fact this statement was was a surprise to Latvia. Longer version of Matīss´ interview can be viewed here (in Latvian only).

To sum up, Estonia and Latvia share the same view. And their position is constructive and adequate in the context of Rail Baltica project development. Lithuania on the same time continues demanding inclusion of Vilnius, but unfortunately it is impossible to include Vilnius according to Lithuania´s desires. Therefore continued stiffness by Lithuania is hindering the process. Estonian and Latvian view is correct that Lithuania and European Commission must reach an agreement on Vilnius because TEN-T and CEF regulations have agreed and are binding to all and there is no mentioning of Vilnius on high-speed train route. Lithuania itself has proposed Kaunas to lay on HST track. Estonia and Latvia must hurry up with preparatory works and be ready to apply for financing from CEF in near future. It is not reasonable to wait for Lithuania because Lithuania most probably must change it´s mind on Vilnius and still must move forward with Kaunas option.