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Latvian prosecutors said Wednesday they were investigating officials for having allegedly misspent public funds on a costly and much-delayed rail link between the Baltics and Poland.
The planned Rail Baltica line was originally set to connect the capitals of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Europe’s high-speed rail network by next year.
But that date has since been pushed back to 2030.
A special parliamentary commission in Latvia found earlier this month that gross negligence and unapproved project changes led the projected costs to quadruple from less than six billion euros ($6.3 billion) to nearly 24 billion.
The prosecutor general’s office said it was probing state officials responsible for the implementation of Rail Baltica for “allegedly causing large losses to the state budget”.
It launched the criminal proceedings on December 10, the office said a statement, adding the anti-corruption bureau is now handling the case.
No specific officials have been named in the proceedings.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — former USSR states which joined both the EU and NATO in 2004 — all have Soviet-era wide gauge railways.
The Baltic states launched Rail Baltica in the hopes of creating more trade and logistics opportunities for the region of some six million people.
il-amj/sbk