The European Investment Bank (EID) has agreed to participate in the construction of the Rūdninkai military base for the German brigade, Lithuanian Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius said on Wednesday.
“An agreement in principle has been reached with the EIB [...] for its participation in the Rūdninkai military campus construction project through a public-private partnership (PPP),” he told LRT RADIO.
Šadžius said the EIB will finance a large portion of the project estimated to cost around 1.5 billion euros.
“To put it simply, it would be leasing. The EIB – I don’t want us to see it just as a wallet we can dip into in case of trouble. It will secure funding, but not full financing, as we see in PPP projects – you need to attract private credit resources as well, but it’s ready to finance a large part itself,” he said.
The minister also pointed out that the EIB will advise Lithuania on the implementation of a large-scale project.
“The second key point is that the EIB will actively participate in developing the entire PPP model, creating the necessary legal entities, and offering consultations and advice. Consultations and advice for EIB-funded projects are free, unlike the legal services we would otherwise have to pay for with public funds,” he explained.
Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said on Tuesday that the EIB could lend Lithuania 2–3 billion euros for all infrastructure projects, including military ones. He said EIB loans would allow Lithuania to spend more of its own and borrowed funds on weapons acquisitions and defence.
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 total cost of the Rūdninkai military base project is estimated at 1.5 billion euros, with more than 3 billion euros required for the entire 12-year maintenance phase.
Since 1994, the EIB has provided 5.37 billion euros in loans for environmental, infrastructure, innovation, and business projects in Lithuania.
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