Tallinn, 20 October 2016 – Prime Minister Rõivas will attend the European Council meeting, today and tomorrow. The EU leaders will specifically address migration, trade and EU-Russia relations. On Friday, Estonia, Finland, and the European Commission will sign the BalticConnector funding agreement.
Concerning the migration issue, the focus is on the implementation of the decisions already made, and on cooperation with third countries. The trade discussions will aim at finding solutions for concluding the negotiations currently taking place.
Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas will meet with the new British Prime Minister Theresa May, in Brussels for the first time, to discuss the bilateral relations between Estonia and the UK as well as the potential bases for a future relationship between the UK and the EU.
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, will sign a funding agreement to obtain European co-financing for the BalticConnector project.
The BalticConnector is a proposed 150 km natural gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland that will connect Estonian and Finnish gas grids; approximately 80 km of the pipeline will be located subsea level. The proposed interconnection will increase the security of supply, as well as energy security in the whole region. The construction of the gas pipeline is scheduled to be completed by 2020.
Prime Minister Rõivas will also participate in a traditional liberal leaders' pre-summit lunch where the Prime Minister will meet with Guy Verhofstadt, the head of the Liberal faction in the European Parliament.
Prime Minister Rõivas will return to Estonia on Friday night.