The Three Seas Fund is being developed in cooperation between the banks of 12 member states. The project will be presented to leaders at the September summit in Bucharest.
The Three Seas Fund will have a budget of EUR 5 billion and will be used to generate investments worth EUR 100 billion. The banks of the 12 member states are to sign a letter of intent which will establish the investment fund. The project will be presented to the Three Seas leaders at the summit in Bucharest between September 17th and 18th.
It will be used to generate investments worth EUR 100 billion
The banks of only three countries are needed to put the project into action. The Polish national development bank (BGK) is the initiator of the Fund. The project is meant to finance infrastructure and energy investments in the Three Seas region. It is meant to be inspired by the Marguerite Fund – the European Commission’s project – which is made up of the five largest European banks, including the BGK.
Via Carpathia
One of the main projects is the Via Carpatia. This is an international highway meant to connect the Baltic States with Greece. Further investments are foreseen in the development of railways between the twelve countries. The lack of proper train connections leads to the issue, that a trip from Tallinn to Sofia takes three days. In comparison, a trip from Berlin to Madrid takes only several hours.
For countries such as Poland, however, the most important are the energetic investments. Poland and Croatia are especially keen on connecting the gas terminals in Świnoujście and Krk island. This will help countries in the region become independent of Russian gas supplies.
The Three Seas Initiative is an international economic initiative between 12 countries in the region between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas. Its members include: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. The first summit was held in 2016 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was initiated by Polish president Andrzej Duda and Croatian president Kolinda Grabar–Kitarovic.
