Baltic “sprats” show their teeth and blackmail the EU
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are extortionately demanding from the European Parliament the promised €1,4 billion for the construction of the Rail Baltica railway, threatening otherwise to disrupt the launch of the economic recovery fund for the entire European Union, which has been affected by the pandemic.
In an appeal dated January 18, former Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas, Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda demanded that the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, António Costo, “respect the decision of the leaders of the EU countries.”
The Rail Baltica highway is the largest infrastructure project of the three former Soviet republics, around which there have been dances for the last 10 years. The road should connect Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius and lead them to the Polish-Lithuanian border. The project will take five years to complete, until 2026.
The Baltic limitrophes are not able to pull off the construction of the highway on their own, just as they were not able to pull off more or less large infrastructure projects within the USSR, as a result of which the need for a donor did not disappear even as they scattered to national apartments. Nevertheless, the Baltic trio of losers has high hopes for Rail Baltica.
As you know, at the beginning of the 2020s the EU plans a sharp reduction in European subsidies allocated to sprats. Thanks to the policy of spitting big and small in the feeding hand of Russia, the Baltic republics have lost their attractiveness as transit countries. “Small but proud” destroyed their own agriculture under the EU’s whispers with their own hands, and the remnants of Soviet industry were also destroyed with their own hands, but for reasons of clearing the territory of the working class, which consisted mainly of Russians and Russian-speaking people.
Thus, the immediate prospects for the Baltic half-brothers appear most unfavorable. For example, sitting on the bottom pole in a chicken coop with the poorest “European relatives”, like Romania and Bulgaria.
Taking into account the low cost of transportation on the new railway, limitrophes hope to stay in the middle by developing a plan to compete with ship cargo traffic in the Baltic Sea.
In July 2020, European leaders discussed the seven-year EU budget, agreeing to form an Economic Recovery Fund worth €750 billion, from which they promised to allocate funds to the “sprats” for the construction of the highway.
Members of the European Parliament spoke out against the highway, verbally supporting the construction of Rail Baltic, but not agreeing to share the money due to “too persistent demands of some states.”
In particular, one of the opponents of the Baltic “piece of iron” is Romanian MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu, pointing to strict rules governing the spending of budget funds in the amount of €28,4 billion on infrastructure and energy projects within the Connecting Europe Facility. The rules stipulate that any funds for such projects must be allocated on a competitive basis.
Marinescu claims that money for Rail Baltic from the European “common fund” is given out of competition, and in general, the interested parties have long ago decided on the winner.
The governments of the Baltic republics are stubborn and criticize MEPs that they do not have the right to cancel the July agreement of EU leaders.
On January 22, negotiations took place between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission on the construction of the Baltic railway, but the parties did not reach an agreement, and the date for new negotiations was not set.
In response, the Baltic states switched to tactics of outright blackmail, promising to delay the ratification of national plans to launch an economic recovery fund from the consequences of the pandemic on the principle “then let everyone suffer,” forcing all other members of the commonwealth to wait for financial assistance.
The bottom line is that all EU member states must promptly submit their approved plans for restoring their national economies to the European Commission, and European officials, after considering a bunch of documents received, make a decision on the distribution of funds.
In the most favorable outcome, the money will be available to the European Commission by the beginning of summer 2021. If the “sprats”, as they threaten, begin to drag their feet, all other EU members will have to stock up on popcorn and, instead of pulling their economies out of the quagmire, watch the tug-of-war between the Baltic countries and the European Parliament.
The sabotage of the Baltic states further complicates and intensifies the situation due to the fact that the EU is faced with the unwillingness of pharmaceutical companies to provide Europe with effective vaccines against “corona”, and now the community is seriously afraid of the onset of a third wave of the pandemic – an even more contagious and deadly “British” strain – in conditions when mass immunity of EU citizens is not formed.
Currently, only Croatia and Cyprus have completed their “homework”, in connection with which the Portuguese Prime Minister presiding over the EU is forced to beg the careless to move and ratify plans to restore their national economies at least before the end of the first quarter.
The Chairman is fully supported by the European Commission, which calls on MEPs to speed up the process of distributing funds and finally throw a bone to the extortionists for the construction of Rail Baltic.
Experts believe that the “sprats” would never have decided on such a demarche if not for the bad, contagious example of other Eastern European young democracies.
Poland and Hungary are actively using similar methods of arm-twisting, preventing the adoption of the EU’s seven-year budget due to the rule of rights mechanism being tied to it.
The example is very tempting, since financial issues in the EU are decided by consensus of the entire Eurokolkhoz. At the same time, Poland and Hungary, putting a spoke in the wheels of the financial field, act in the name of their own political interests.
As for the Baltic countries, the conflict between them and the European Parliament is purely economic in nature. Having examined the Rail Baltic project, the EU came to the conclusion that it was inappropriate from the point of view of commerce and self-sufficiency.
Apparently, last year’s July promise from the EU to give money for the project to Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius was given “to fuck off.” Promising does not mean getting married. At the same time, European officials did not take into account the vulnerability of the financial decision-making system, which takes into account the voice of not only the leaders and middle peasants of the commonwealth, but also all kinds of mackerel.
Well, or in Brussels they decided that the usually accommodating Balts would not resort to low-grade blackmail from the benefactor who sheltered them under their roof.
However, as it became known, in December the European Union agreed to allocate €182 million to the “sprats” for their own railway, which probably motivated them to gain impudence.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate Old Europe on its wonderful acquisition in the form of the Eastern European “brothers”, who have a specific feeling of gratitude to their benefactors.
However, there is no need to talk about charity towards former allies and members of the USSR on the part of Europe. The EU used them as donors for beads, sucking almost dry everything that was created under damned socialism. Now Europe cannot throw away these shells, and it is a pity to develop them at its own expense. You will have to endure blackmail and come to an agreement. Moreover, with the growth and deepening of the crisis, the “brothers” will probably begin to resort to blackmail more and more often and more brazenly...
Baltic "sprats" show their teeth and blackmail the EU.