Lithuanian railways to seek for less damaging impact following fine from EC

Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-03 01:21:31|Editor: huaxia
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VILNIUS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Lithuanian national railway operator Lithuanian Railway said on Monday it is to seek for "cost-effective and less damaging" option following a fine of 28 million euros from the European Commission (EC) for breaching the competition rules.

Lithuania's state-controlled railway company said on Monday it is to conduct a thorough assessment following the EC decision to fine the company almost 28 million euros for blocking competition on rail freight market.

"We will strive to solve the present issue that we have inherited, as well as other problems which haunt us from the past, in a way that's cost-effective and least damaging to Lithuanian Railways," Mantas Bartuska, the head of Lithuanian Railways, said in a statement on Monday.

He added the company would study the arguments of the EC before coming up with the way to respond to the fine.

On Monday, the EC has imposed a fine on Lithuanian railways for breaching the EU antitrust rules following the commission's investigation. In 2008, Lithuanian Railways dismantled a 19-km long railway track connection between Lithuania and neighboring Latvia, hereby preventing oil company Orlen Lietuva, a subsidiary of Polish oil company PKN Orlen, from using the services of other railway companies. Orlen Lietuva is a major customer of Lithuanian Railways.

The EU's rail freight market was liberalized in 2007.

The EC noted that Lithuanian Railways, as a vertically integrated company, is responsible for rail transport as well as for railway infrastructure.

"It is unacceptable and unprecedented that a company dismantles a public rail infrastructure to protect itself from competition," Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner in charge of competition policy, was quoted in an announcement from the EC Monday morning.

In recent years, state controlled Lithuanian Railways has seen its management completely reshuffled, amid corruption scandals. The fine from the EC is burden inherited from the previous management, says the company and the leaders of the Baltic country.

"Tolerated for several years by several governments, 'the state within the state' and its irresponsible behavior has caused financial and reputation harm to the entire country," Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian president, was quoted as saying by news agency BNS, using the term "the state within the state" to describe the previous management of Lithuanian Railways.

"We will use all legal measures available to defend the interests of Lithuania. At the same time, we put all efforts to establish a constructive dialogue with the European Commission," Rokas Masiulis, the country's minister of transport and communications, was quoted as saying by news website vz.lt.

Lithuanian Railways was given by the EC three months to develop a plan to correct the situation. The decision by the EC can also be challenged before the General Court of the European Union within two months, informed Lithuanian Railways. Enditem

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