On Wednesday, the European Commission presented its draft budget for 2028-2034 to member states. The European Union has so far financed several major infrastructure projects in Estonia, including Rail Baltica.

According to the Ministry of Climate, the total funding needed for Rail Baltics in the next budget period is €1.7 billion, three quarters of which would ideally come from the EU. More specifically, the Connecting Europe Facility.

Eva Killar, head of the mobility development and investment department at the Ministry of Climate, said the European Commission's proposal for the new budget period, published on Wednesday, was very positive news for Estonia.

"The proposal from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), from which we mainly receive co-financing for the Rail Baltica project, came to €51.5 billion, which is twice the total amount of the previous period. This position from which to start negotiations is very good for us," said Killar.

Another piece of good news, according to Killar, is that while up to now member states had to pay 15 percent of the cost of a project from their own pockets, that amount has now increased but only to 25 percent.

"This is rather positive news, because there were also fears previously that this self-financing rate would rise to 50 percent. This is, however, a preliminary proposal, and already the media are showing that some countries are not so happy with the European Commission's overall budget plan," said Killar.

The money to build Rail Baltica will not go directly from the EU into the coffers of individual member states. According to Killar, just as before, there will be a separate call for applications for infrastructure projects, in which different ones will compete with each other for financing.

"As Rail Baltica is a priority for the EU, it will certainly have an advantage over other new projects that may come from other member states. In the draft version of this funding regulation, which I have seen, it is made clear that priority will definitely be given to cross-border projects," explained Killar.

"The fact that this facility has been retained at all is also a great victory, because the European Commission's original plan was to do away with this funding and leave all these types of transport projects as so-called 'national envelopes'. In this case, however, the cross-border nature of the funding would not have had such a large impact, as member states would have looked at more projects within their own countries."

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