Lithuania and Latvia disagree on power link

Feb 11, 2009
TBT Staff

VILNIUS- Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins has recently urged the public not to make the matter of the Baltic-Swedish electrical link a political issue.

"It is important not to politicize the interconnections issue, but to allow experts to evaluate the technical, economic and social benefits of each interconnection project," Riekstins said in a press release.

 The minister's spokeswoman Una Puspura has told ELTA that "the Latvian minister"s position differs from that of the Lithuanian minister (Usackas)."

 Usackas was quoted as saying that an agreement must be solidified as soon as possible in order to keep the confidence of other EU member states. The project also needs the EC's permission.  

 

As Minister Riekstins said, "Latvia presently sees intensive work being carried out on the said plan under the auspices of the European Commission, involving experts from governments, regulators, energy companies and transfer systems operators. I cannot agree with the recent statements by Lithuania that there has been no advancement concerning the issue of Baltic interconnections, specifically, concerning the Baltic-Sweden interconnection."

 The EC has predicted an estimated 176 million euro for the project. However, Latvia and Lithuania have not yet agreed on which nation will be joined to Sweden with the power link.

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