In an interview on ETV's "Esimene stuudio" show on Thursday, Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet said that Estonia needs to find between €400 and €500 million to finance the Rail Baltica project in the coming years and that a loan could be taken out to make up the shortfall.

"At the moment, the joint venture RB Rail, which is responsible for this project on the territory of all three countries, is in the process of analyzing what the possibilities may be to cover this shortfall. Of course, a loan is only one of the options and there may be others, but at least given what we know at the moment, it seems to me that [a loan ] is going to be one of the most realistic options," said Svet.

According to Svet, it should be decided, either at the end of this year or the beginning of next, where the funds to cover the shortfall should be taken from. Svet believes that if the three Baltic states were to borrow funds together, they would do so on more favorable terms.

"If the loan is taken either by the three countries together or via a joint venture, the interest rates will be quite low. As our aim is to keep the borrowing burden as low as possible, the loan should be a rather exceptional decision and, if taken at all, it should be done for investments," said Svet.

Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (Reform) said that Estonia borrows all the time and there is no sense in attaching the Rail Baltica label to any loan money, into which European and CO2 funds will be channeled.

"There is no need to say that even one euro of the loan will go to a specific place. But Rail Baltica's cash flow has to fit into the budget strategy, so that it does not create more budget deficits in its name. Most of it is not a loan, that means European money, CO2 money, and in that sense Rail Baltica is a revenue project in budgetary terms –  as are the taxes that come with it. It would not be a loan," Ligi said.

The leader of Eesti 200, Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas, does not support the idea of taking out a new loan.

"After all, the state has no borrowing capacity over the coming years, because the loan will determine the three percent budget deficit. We have it at the maximum, we don't have the capacity to borrow at the moment," Kallas said.

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