BNS: Lithuania's PM seeks to convince Swedish counterpart of advantages of bilateral power link
Updated 2008-10-22
VILNIUS, Oct 22, BNS - Lithuania's Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas will s eek to convince his Swedish counterpart that Lithuania is ready to implement a project on the building of a power link with Sweden.
"We have convinced the European Commission that we can launch the project. The Commission is interested in a fast-track launch of the project, it [the Commission] should approve it, and Sweden understands that," Kirkilas told the reporters on Wednesday.
Next week Kirkilas will attend a meeting of Baltic and Nordic PMs in Helsinki where he will hold a separate meeting with his Swedish counterpart and will confirm to the leader of Swedish government that Lithuania is ready to launch the project.
Latvia, although putting forward an alternative project, "could not initiate it tomorrow, since they would have to conduct commercial and technical studies and secure financing", Kirkilas pointed out.
As agreed in Brussels last week, a Baltic links plan would be drafted by Dec. 10, Lithuania's PM reminded. "We hope that we will launch this project with the Commission's help."
Lithuania's government has announced recently that Latvia has finally agreed for the link to be directed to Lithuania. Later, however, Latvia's Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis said that Riga was neither for nor against that project.
Lithuania's national energy company Leo LT hopes to build the link by 2016. The company's investments into the project are seen reaching some 1.1 billion litas (EUR 318.84 mln). Leo LT claims to be able to implement the project without outer support.
