TALLINN, 16 June 2017 – The National Audit Office published the detailed legal opinion about the obligations to be assumed for the Republic of Estonia with the agreement for the development of the Rail Baltic rail connection commissioned from RASK Attorneys-at-Law. Access to the document was restricted until now for reasons depending on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
However, access to the information given in points 191-204 of Chapter V ‘Shareholders Agreement’ of the legal opinion will remain restricted, as the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure finds that they contain references to the shareholders agreement of the joint venture RB Rail AS, which can be regarded as business secrets. The part that will not be published covers about 4.5 pages of the 43-page legal opinion and the place of the removed points has been marked accordingly.
On 24 May 2017 Auditor General Alar Karis sent out an overview, which focuses on the agreement for the development of the Rail Baltic rail connection entered into between Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and currently pending ratification by the parliament, to the members of the Riigikogu. The overview the National Audit Office analyses the content of the agreement in the format of questions and answers to highlight the main risks that the Riigikogu should acknowledge and manage as well as possible in the opinion of the state’s supreme audit institution.
The chronology of the decisions and events concerning the establishment of Rail Baltic since 1994 and information about the expenses related to the project from 2010-2017 have been enclosed with the overview.
Although the overview of the National Audit Office was made public on 24 May, access to the legal opinion enclosed with it was restricted and it was classified as ‘for internal use only’, because the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications had restricted the access to the documents covered by the legal analysis. When the overview was published, the National Audit Office announced that the restriction established on the legal opinion will remain in effect for as long as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has informed the National Audit Office of the circumstances that make it possible to cancel the restriction on access. Today, i.e. on 16 June 2017, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure notified the National Audit Office about the parts that no longer had to be subject to restricted access and the parts that remained covered by the restriction.
The legal opinion prepared by RASK Attorneys-at-Law is now accessible on the National Audit Office’s website at http://www.riigikontroll.ee/DesktopModules/DigiDetail/FileDownloader.aspx?AuditId=2425&FileId=14007.
Toomas Mattson
Communication Manager
+372 640 0777
+372 513 4900
[email protected]
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Posted:
6/16/2017 5:00 PM
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Last Update:
9/26/2017 12:45 PM
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Last Review:
9/26/2017 12:45 PM