Lithuania needs up to €34m to protect sea cables: PM

Lithuania alone needs up to 34 million euros to protect its offshore cables and requires European Union (EU) funding for this purpose, Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said, reported Xinhua.

"The real need is estimated at around 32-34 million euros from the Lithuanian side alone, based on the situation we have today," Paluckas said after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was here to attend the ceremony of Baltic states synchronizing power grids with Western Europe, in Vilnius on Sunday, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported.

"We can finance these things for a certain period with our own money, if we're later able to cover or recover it from European funds," Paluckas said.

"This is more about the flow of funds, but we need a political decision as soon as possible," he added.

Paluckas explained that the funds are needed for the physical and technological protection of the cables.