The politician said that he will travel to Brussels this week to discuss the issue. Kulbergs, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda sent a joint letter last week to European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, calling for a ban on the transit of Russian grain through the European Union (EU).
"The biggest problem is that the EU has the exclusive right to determine both tariff and transit issues. We can do this under certain conditions, but this entails certain risks," said Kulbergs.
He emphasized that Russian grain has not been subject to any sanctions so far. Moreover, the grain does not belong to Russia at all, but to Latvia's strategic partners - the USA, Switzerland, Japan. "They are the ones who buy this grain as the largest corporations in the world," the politician claimed. These countries also buy grain from farmers in the Baltics, the Prime Minister added.
On Tuesday, government members were informed that in the event of a ban on the transit of such grain, Latvia would have to reckon with an immediate risk of legal proceedings worth 200 to 800 million euros.
According to Kulbergs, Lithuania is currently involved in a similar case involving 12 billion euros. Lithuania will likely have to pay 450 million euros in this litigation this year, the prime minister said.
He said he wanted to "put all these examples on the table" in Brussels so that a common EU ban could be discussed.
Estonia decided earlier this month to impose national sanctions that ban the transit of Russian and Belarusian grain through Estonia. However, Kulbergs pointed out that in Estonia's case, the situation is different, because when such a ban was introduced, no grain transit contracts had been concluded. Latvia had already concluded contracts for 300,000 tonnes.
Kulbergs admitted that there was no prior information on how much such legal proceedings could cost. The Prime Minister emphasized that he had to assess the risk that such legal proceedings could pose to the state budget, and if it had to be paid, the question was who else would be deprived of the state budget.
Kulbergs admitted that when the government made the decision recently to increase Russia's transit fees by 300%, it was not fully aware of the facts.
On September 17, the Saeima urgently adopted amendments to the Railway Law, which provide for the acceleration of the review of railway infrastructure fees for Russian grain transit by the end of the year.
The aim of the amendments is to create the possibility of promptly increasing the infrastructure fee for grain transit cargoes whose dispatch station indicated in the transport documents is located in Russia. The regulation will be in force until December 31, 2026.
The government also previously approved changes that will allow the Food and Veterinary Service to take samples from grain cargoes in transit and conduct laboratory tests to verify the compliance of the declared country of origin. The Prime Minister has also previously emphasized that Latvia wants to limit the transit of Russian grain, while maintaining the possibility of supporting the export of Ukrainian and Latvian farmers' products through Latvian ports.