Lithuania has applied to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for funding for the construction of a permanent German military base.
EIB President Nadia Calvino confirmed this to the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“The government in Vilnius plans to spend over one billion euros to finance the necessary construction and has turned to the EIB for help,” the daily reported.
According to Calvino, Lithuania’s application comes at a time when Europe must accept that “the geopolitical order has reached a turning point”.
The EIB could lend Lithuania 2–3 billion euros in the near future for infrastructure projects, including military ones, said Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas.
“We could expect between 2 billion and 3 billion euros worth of investments into all infrastructure projects over the next period. This, in turn, would free up our budgetary funds and allow us to invest directly in what the EIB would not invest in, ie in the acquisition of modern weaponry, investments in the defence industry and similar things,” he told journalists in Vilnius on Tuesday.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is also “committed to increasing investments in Lithuania”, Paluckas said, and initial talks with other international and financial institutions are also being organised.
“We will not run out of financial resources to meet our defence needs,” Paluckas said. “We have other issues: how to put that money in the budget, how to ensure the debt service costs accordingly, and how to repay those debts over a longer period of time.”
Berlin plans to deploy a 5,000-strong brigade to Lithuania by the end of 2027. The majority of the Bundeswehr troops will be stationed in Rūdninkai, in the eastern district of Šalčininkai, and the rest in Rukla, in the central district of Jonava.
The brigade’s initial command element, about 20 military personnel responsible for planning the brigade’s relocation to Lithuania, arrived in Vilnius last April. Their number will increase to 500 by the end of the year.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
