VILNIUS - The prime ministers of the three Baltic countries and Poland on Monday reached a preliminary agreement on synchronizing the power grids of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with the continental European network via the existing interconnection between Lithuania and Poland, known as LitPol Link, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said.

Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas said, however, that a second power link remained "an open issue".

"After a decade of no decision, a decision in principle has been adopted that synchronization will be done via Poland. The interconnection we already have, the first LitPol Link, is sufficient to implement that decision today. The issue of a second interconnection may be addressed in the future if somebody has safety concerns," Skvernelis told BNS by telephone from Tallinn on Monday evening.

"What remains to be done is to sign a political memorandum," he said, adding that such a document would likely be signed in June.

The energy minister described it as a key agreement.

"A key point is that (the prime ministers) not only approved the synchronization via Poland, but it was also agreed that we should seek to sign a memorandum of understanding in the near future, as soon as possible, which is in late June," he told BNS by phone from Tallinn

According to Vaiciunas, the issue of the number of interconnections was raised, but it was agreed that the construction of a second link would remain an open issue.

A study by the European Commission's Joint Research Center has found that synchronization via two LitPol Link interconnections would be the optimal option and would cost an estimated 770 million to 960 million euros. Synchronization via one interconnection would cost 900 million euros and synchronization with Scandinavia would cost 1.36 billion to 1.41 billion euros.

After Latvia and Estonia began to doubt the possibility of synchronization via the single link, Lithuania's electricity transmission system operator Litgrid raised the idea of building a second interconnection after 2025, the target date for completing the project and disconnecting from the Russian BRELL system.