Ministerial summit in Vilnius outlines "Power bridge" investment

The European Union is willing to include the construction of a Polish-Lithuanian "power bridge" in its priority investments, said EU transportation and power commissioner Loyola de Palacio at a summit of Prime Ministers from Poland, Finland and the Baltic countries in Vilnius on Friday. "However, we know of cases over EU history, where some countries were more involved in the realization of joint projects with their neighboring countries then doing nothing" she said. Although she did not name the country which had fallen behind the others, though the Lithuanian media have no doubts that she was referring to Poland. Lithuania has many times wondered why Poland ignored the project called "Via Baltica" in which the former invested EUR 80 million and is planning to invest a further EUR 44 million. "We are not ignoring the project, we have more important ones to consider now but if the EU helps us financially, we will be able to go ahead with this one as well" said Prime Minister Leszek Miller. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Sept. 6-7; p. 32) A.Z