Baltic States and Poland sign €720 million grant agreement for the Baltic Synchronisation project

Brussels, December 15 - Neftegaz.RU. INEA (the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency) signed on December 14, a €720 million grant agreement with the electricity transmission system operators of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland for the Baltic Synchronisation Project.

This represents the largest amount of funding ever attributed from the Connecting Europe Facility Energy (CEF-E). The project aims to better integrate electricity grids of the Baltic States with the ones of the rest of continental Europe and ensure their energy independence from third countries.

Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, said: "This agreement marks a decisive step in the Baltic Synchronisation process, a project of strategic European interest that needs to be completed by the end of 2025. This will ensure not only the full integration of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the internal energy market, but also facilitate the take-up of renewable energy in the Baltic States and Poland, helping them achieve the European Green Deal objectives."

Synchronisation is a symbol of European solidarity in energy. With continuous support from the European Commission over the years, the leaders of the Baltic States and Poland reached a landmark agreement in 2018 and signed a Political Roadmap for accomplishing the synchronisation by the target date of 2025. The Political Implementation Roadmap was subsequently signed in June 2019.

Whilst formerly an "energy island", the Baltic States region is now connected with European partners through recently established electricity lines with Poland (LitPol Link), Sweden (NordBalt) and Finland (Estlink 1 and Estlink 2). These projects were made possible and built with EU support. For historical reasons, however, the Baltic States' electricity grid is still operated in a synchronous mode with the Russian and Belarusian systems.