On Thursday, 20 October, the Saeima adopted in the third and final reading the Rail Baltica Law to ensure the construction of European standard gauge high-speed rail infrastructure and prevent obstacles affecting timely completion of construction corresponding with the allocated funding.
“The Rail Baltica project is a geopolitically crucial object of national interest. It is an important transport logistics and infrastructure solution that will link the Baltic States to the rest of the European Union,” previously stated Krišjānis Feldmans, Chair of the Saeima Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee, which is responsible for the advancement of the Draft Law in the Saeima. The Committee Chair pointed out that timely project implementation was deferred by the requirements established in the technical and special provisions requested by state and local government institutions, as well as external utility network owners or legal holders.
The Law stipulates that the technical or special provisions to be issued for the implementation of the project do not include requirements concerning the construction of buildings of parts thereof if the obligation of the construction of such buildings or parts thereof does not follow from the laws and regulations and does not meet the conditions of applicability of the funding to be used for the project implementation. This regulation does not apply to the technical provisions issued by the State Environmental Service.
It is also planned to preserve cultural monuments or parts thereof of national and local significance in the territory intended for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project. If full or partial preservation of a cultural monument is not possible in its current location and the monument fits certain pre-established criteria, the Cabinet of Ministers will remove it from the list of state protected cultural monuments. The National Heritage Board will establish the conditions for the research, preparation, and relocation of the relevant cultural monument, or for removal and preservation of its most valuable parts or fragments.
Cutting down protected trees is permitted in the territory intended for the Rail Baltica project and related buildings if there are no alternative solutions. In such case, a positive opinion by an arborist as well as a permit by the Nature Conservation Agency must be obtained.
It is established that eight years is the maximum period of construction related to the project implementation until the commissioning of the building. The topographic plan prepared for the design of public-use rail infrastructure and the structures related to the construction thereof will have a period of validity of four years from the date of registration at the local government database.
Immovable property determined to be real estates without a claimant but with creditor claims, if the bailiff is no longer pursuing expropriation in accordance with certain cases stipulated in the relevant laws and regulations, will be transferred to the Ministry of Transport. It is foreseen that the Ministry will also have the opportunity to use unbuilt, state-owned land property from the reserve fund as compensation for the expropriation of a privately-owned estate for public purpose.
Saeima Press Service