Olli Rehn.

Olli Rehn, the Finnish member of the European commission, said Tuesday that the EU would fund the construction of Estlink2, a planned second undersea power cable between Finland and Estonia, to the tune of about €100 million.

The enlargement commissioner told Finnish reporters in Brussels that the money would come from the EU's €5 billion stimulus package.

The integration of the Baltic countries' electricity grid to the rest of the EU's is one of the objectives of the union's energy policy.

The 350-megawatt Estlink1, the first link between the Nordic and Baltic grids, entered into service in 2006.

Jukka Ruusunen, the head of Fingrid, welcomed the proposed EU funding. "Given that the EU has talked about integrating European grids for quite some time it is logical for this project to receive support from the union," Ruusunen told the Finnish News Agency (STT).

He added that the latest gas row between Ukraine and Russia had underscored the importance of integrating Europe's energy infrastructure.

According to Fingrid the projected cost of Estlink2, with a planned capacity of about 635 megawatts, is some €280 million.

Rehn added that Finland's share of the planned €1 billion injection into broadband internet infrastructure in sparsely populated areas, also part of the stimulus package, would be in excess of €10 million.

STT
Lehtikuva – Matti Björkman