Lithuanian railway company to pay EC fine for removed Renge tracks

VILNIUS – The state-run railway company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LG) will Friday pay the fine of nearly 28 million euros imposed by the European Commission (EC) for the dismantled railway stretch to Renge, Latvia, the company's CEO Mantas Bartuska confirmed to BNS.

The deadline for the fine is Jan. 7.

Mantas Dubauskas, spokesman for Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai, said the fine would be paid from the accumulated reserve without a bank guarantee. The company later intends to ask the EC to reduce the fine or waive it – it can use the opportunity within six months, a period that expires in early April.

In mid-December, filed a claim to the European Union's (EU) General Court in Luxembourg over the fine for the railway stretch to Latvia removed a decade ago.

Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai also plans to rebuild the 19-km railway tracks from Orlen Lietuva's refinery in Mazeikiai, northern Lithuania, to the Latvian city of Renge.