"Based on the European Commission's analysis and taking into account energy security considerations, an additional connection must be built between Lithuania and Poland in a different route corridor than the LitPol Link when synchronizing through Poland," Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications Ando Leppiman told BNS after participating in a meeting of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP).

Prior to making a decision regarding synchronizing through Poland, studies must be carried out based on the scenario of two route corridors, Leppiman said. "It is important to move forward and the BEMIP meeting provided certainty that the parties have a will to come up with a plan for synchronizing via Poland by the end of the year," he said.

Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Energy Egidijus Purlys, who participated in a BEMIP meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, told BNS that all participating countries agreed that priority should be given to synchronization via Poland.

"The text of a memorandom of understanding (MoU) was discussed today and I am pleased that it sets synchronization with the Continental European networks via Poland as a priority option," he told BNS via telephone from Brussels.

The MoU would not specify how many interconnections there would be, the official said. "We are not specifying this in detail," he explained. "This will be upto the operators and ENTSO-E to do; ENTSO-E will carry out their assessment and then say how many links will be needed — one or two — to ensure that security level."

Poland said that a second LitPol Link connection would be difficult to build due to environmental requirements.

The three Baltic countries have agreed to disconnect their grids from the BRELL ring, which also includes Russia and Belarus, by 2025 and to synchronize their systems with the Western European system.