The intended recipients are also heading to Brussels with a lengthy wish list, hoping Fitto’s plan will reignite their economies. Their concerns will take center stage during a summit of leaders from Eastern European countries in Helsinki on Dec. 16.
“We want to have special attention to our region — the eastern flank, including Lithuania — because we see the negative impact coming from the geopolitical situation,” Lithuania’s Europe minister, Sigitas Mitkus, said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month. “Sometimes it’s difficult to convince [investors] that … we have all the facilities in place.”
But skeptics warn that any immediate financial support Fitto can provide will be meager, given the scale of the challenge and with the bloc’s seven-year budget running low.
The EU has agreed 19 sanction packages against Moscow in a bid to cripple the Russian war economy, which has bankrolled the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine since February 2022.
In doing so, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have all taken a hit. While the threat of a Kremlin invasion has deterred tourists and investors, the sanctions have choked off cross-border trade with Russia, and everything has been made worse by skyrocketing inflation after the pandemic. Dwindling housing prices have also made it more difficult for businesses to provide collateral to secure loans from banks.
“People who had cross-border connections with some economic consequences have lost them,” Jürgen Ligi, Estonia’s finance minister, told POLITICO.