5th Three Seas Initiative Summit in Tallinn
On 19-20 October the 5th Three Seas Initiative Summit took place in Tallinn. The meeting was held in a hybrid format due to the pandemic. President of Poland Andrzej Duda, President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid and President of Bulgaria Rumen Radew came in person to the capital of Estonia, which holds the Presidency of the Initiative. The remaining representatives participated remotely in the event.
Also, the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice-president of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager took part in the Summit holding talks online.
The greatest achievement of the Summit is undoubtedly a declaration of increased investment in the Three Seas Investment Fund. Established in 2019, upon the initiative of the Polish BGK bank and the Romanian Exim Bank, the fund operates as a private investment fund and supports projects evaluated as profitable. The states with the highest financial contribution into the fund define priority investment areas. According to president of the BGK bank and the chairman of supervisory board of the fund Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka, in the view of several years, the investment pool will amount to EUR 100 billion. At present, the amount of the fund is close to 1 billion. The commitment to the fund has also been declared by the United States. This issue was raised by Mike Pompeo during the closed-door meeting. Later on, the same day during Keith Krach’s public speech, the US Undersecretary of State for Economic, Growth, Energy, and Environment defined a real dimension of this commitment – the USA will invest in the Three Seas Fund 30% of the total contribution of 12 member states being involved in the Initiative, up to the amount of EUR 1 billion. Currently, apart from Poland and Romania, also Estonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Croatia (in total nine out of 12 Three Seas countries) have declared their contribution into the fund. BGK also announced increasing its contribution by further EUR 250 million.
The United States confirmed their interest and readiness to invest into the development of nuclear energy and 5G technology across the Three Seas countries. Development of communication technologies is also a priority and the reaction to the crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the summit, Estonia proposed a concept called Smart Connectivity, which focuses on digitalisation mainly in transport and energy safety sectors. The development of digital technologies increases the investment attractiveness and economic competitiveness of the states in this region of Europe, which, in recent years, has shown a considerable growth in the field of modern and smart technologies. Estonia itself can be a good example of it – it is one of the most digitalised countries in the world. At the occasion of the Summit, a website of the Three Seas Initiative (WWW.3SEAS.EU) has been created.
Within the Summit in Tallinn, President of Poland Andrzej Duda had a meeting with the President of Estonia and Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas. Apart from the Three Seas issues, the talks concerned the situation in Belarus, the new EU budget and the COVID-19 pandemic. The same day the Polish-Estonian Chamber of Commerce was launched. The Polish President also took part in this event.
At the end of the year, the presidency in the Three Seas Initiative will be taken over by Bulgaria so next year summit can be expected in Sofia.
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Photo: Three Seas / Annika Haas
Source:
The official website of the President of the Republic of Poland
3seas.eu
PISM
Atlantic Council
Euractive
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