VILNIUS, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania has three months to submit a plan to the European Commission to correct the situation following the dismantling of a railway track between Lithuania and neighboring Latvia back in 2008, European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Tuesday.
"Rebuilding of the railway track would be the most obvious solution, however, there are also other options," she was quoted as saying by local media.
Earlier this month, the Commission imposed a 28 million euro (33 million U.S. dollars) fine on the Lithuanian national railway operator Lithuanian Railways for breaching the EU antitrust rules following the Commission's investigation.
In 2008, Lithuanian Railways dismantled a 19 km railway track connection between Lithuania and neighboring Latvia, 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.
Vestager noted that Lithuanian Railways should still have to pay the fine even if it decided to rebuild the questioned railway track.
"I believe the government and Lithuanian Railways must decide now how to respond," the Commissioner said.
Prime Minister of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis said the government will seek a compromise in order to settle the issue.
"Avoiding of a compromise took us into this situation where we were imposed with a huge fine. There are various options; we will discuss them," Skvernelis was quoted as saying by local website vz.lt.
It is "too early" to say if it is possible to reduce the fine imposed by the Commission, he added.
"It is unacceptable and unprecedented that a company dismantles a public rail infrastructure to protect itself from competition," Vestager said, announcing the Commission's fine to Lithuanian Railways.
In recent years, state controlled Lithuanian Railways has seen its management completely reshuffled, amid corruption scandals. The fine from the Commission is burden inherited from the previous management, said 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 earlier quoted as saying by news agency BNS, using the term "the state within the state" to describe the previous management of Lithuanian Railways.
Vestager met with Grybauskaite, Skvernelis and members of Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) during her visit to Vilnius on Tuesday.
