Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania completed a switch from Russia’s electricity grid to the EU’s system on Sunday, severing Soviet-era ties amid heightened security after the suspected sabotage of several subsea cables and pipelines.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, hailed the move, years in the planning, as marking a new era of freedom for the region, in a speech at a ceremony in Vilnius alongside the leaders of the three countries and the Polish president.
Debated for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord gained momentum following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It is designed to integrate the three Baltic states more closely with the EU and to boost the region’s energy security.
Source: Reuters
On Thursday, the Baltic’s largest container port reported the best year in its history—for the third year running. Last year, Baltic Hub, a part of the Port of Gdańsk, handled 23% more containers than it did in 2024. The increase is directly tied to the completion in June of T3, the facility’s third deep-water quay, which raised its capacity by a third.
The expansion of Baltic Hub significantly increases its competitive advantage in the region, and puts pressure on other ports to keep pace, but it should not take its edge for granted. Many of its competitors in Poland were already on the decline, due largely to a falling volume of coal shipments, and are making investments of their own in the hopes of reversing their fortunes. The twin port of Świnoujście and Szczecin, for example, is investing 10 million złoty (€2.4 million) in upgrades, including construction of its own deep-water container port. Its capacity will only be half of Baltic Hub’s, but it touts road and railway access, as well as its existing ferry and LNG terminals, as its strong suits. A port cannot thrive on containers alone.
At 10:16 this morning, Bornholm lost power. The outage was immediately localised to the submarine power cable linking it with southern Sweden. Precisely 30 minutes later, Trefor El-net Øst, the TSO for the island, announced that the outage had been due to an overload caused by a technical problem; the cable was undamaged.
For the island’s 40,000 residents and its businesses, the three hours or so without power was a minor irritation. For those who are responsible for keeping the island running in the event of a situation of this sort, it was a golden opportunity: not knowing what the reason for the outage was, or how long it would last, emergency plans, including firing up the island’s backup power plant, were set into action.
The good news is that the initial reports seem to indicate that everything went mostly according to plan. More of a concern is the reason for the overload, and why it caused the entire island to black out. Call it an unknown known.
For years now, rail buffs and those keen on closer EU integration have had their eyes firmly, if nervously, fixed on Rail Baltica, a planned high-speed railway connecting the three Baltic states that is far behind schedule and way over budget. Somewhat overlooked amid that drama has been the steady progress of another, less prestigious railway project connecting Tallinn, Tartu, Rīga and Vilnius via existing railways.
Since last January, when service began on a limited basis—and requiring transfers in each of the three countries—it has transported some 16,000 passengers, well above expectations. That is due to get a bump this year: an extension of service that began on Monday means most of the line can now be travelled without a transfer. A limited number of departures and long travel times will make it less of an option for long-distance travellers, and, even for regional travel, coaches will still be a competitive option, but southern Estonia and northern Latvia in particular are hoping that more infrastructure ties will give rise to better economic ties, spurring growth. Tartu, Estonia’s second-largest city, has long felt that a direct connection to someplace other than Tallinn was overdue.
Detractors point out that the €2 million subsidy the line will require is much more than other lines get, and that standing up the service will require a further €400,000 initial investment. Public officials expect the subsidy to fall as passenger numbers grow, but the are concerns that there may not be enough passengers for it ever to become viable. For now, the trains will run, but they may not get much time.
The leaders of Sweden’s Socialdemokraterna are calling for the establishment of a permanent multinational Nato force on the island of Gotland. Their plan, put forward on Sunday during the opening day of Folk och Försvar, an annual security conference, proposes establishing a contingent that could supplement the island’s existing defensive capabilities. They also suggest making the island the home base of an 800‑person amphibious battalion capable of operating throughout the Baltic.
Gotland, given its strategic location in the Baltic, has been a focal point of Sweden’s post-post-Cold War rearmament. Even so, the island remains only lightly defended—the Gotland Regiment, re-established in 2018, comprises only 350 soldiers. Gotland’s home-guard unit reckons it could muster another 500 soldiers in the event of a Russian attack, and the thinking in Stockholm had been that the combined force would be enough to hold any unforeseen Russian invasion in check until reinforcements from elsewhere in Sweden and the rest of Nato could arrive.
But, with Moscow expected to be antagonistic for the foreseeable future, and Washington looking increasingly unwilling help out, that strategy is up for revision. In practice, the military is already preparing for both of these scenarios: in September, Sweden held its first bilateral drill with Poland on Gotland (pictured above).
Politically, Socialdemokraterna are in the opposition, but the proposal aligns with the government’s own position that it would welcome a Nato contingent if the alliance decided to send one. Their hope is that they would do so before the Russians decided to send their own.
(📸 Försvarsmakten)
For mariners in the Baltic Sea plagued by disrupted satellite-navigation systems, help is on its way in the form of a forgotten technology. Sjöfartsverket, the Swedish maritime authority, will equip a total of ten lighthouses on Sweden’s south-eastern coast, starting with Kapelludden (pictured above), with what is known as a radar beacon, a system that, in short, emits a Morse-code signal when it receives a radar signal. Navigators who receive the signal can then determine their ship’s location from the bearing and distance to the beacon.
Sweden, like other countries in the Baltic, points to Russia as the source of disruptions to satnav systems used not just by ships, but also aeroplanes, and research has shown the signal that causes the them is strongest near Kaliningrad. Regardless of who is to blame, it is a growing problem. Mariners say it is a regular occurrence, and perhaps tens of thousands of ships in one of the world’s busiest maritime areas have been affected. Fortunately, navigators can still find their way with other methods, including navigational charts on paper. They require more effort to use—and often additional training—but they are also harder to disrupt. Necessity is also the mother of re-invention.
(📸 Stefan Svanaeus)
Mention Bornholm to any Dane, and they will immediately think of summer. That is a problem for an island that is looking to promote itself as a place to visit year-round. So far, efforts to promote winter tourism—including a pledge by shopkeepers to stay open throughout the off-season—have sputtered. Zero in on December, though, and Christmas, at least, is beginning to look a lot like a success story. The success of Bornholm’s Christmas markets, though relatively new, can already be read in the statistics: since 2021, when Destination Bornholm, the municipally funded tourism bureau, began marketing them to people on the mainland, the number of overnight says for November and December have doubled.
Bornholm’s markets have neither the size nor the history of those held elsewhere, but, say attendees, that is precisely their draw. The focus, instead, is on quality; locally produced handicrafts are the main fare. Group Bornholm, a tourism agency, this year organised its first tour for Germans to visit the island’s Christmas markets. Most of the thirty people along on the sold-out trip had rave reviews for the smaller scale and intimacy of the island’s markets, and many said they would be interested in seeing the island at another time of year. This will not be the last Christmas for Bornholm’s markets.
(📸 Toxophilus)
Denmark’s culture ministry has named the town of Svaneke (pop 1,000) on the island of Bornholm, as one the country’s best-preserved examples of its built heritage. In all, 16 places ranging from entire villages to the centre of Copenhagen, all of them dating from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, were selected as examples of how historic areas can retain their distinct characteristics, while also functioning as modern inhabited areas. The designations are meant to be an inspiration for other places in Denmark from the same time period. For the 16 sites that made the list, the local councils that are responsible for them will be required to place preservation on par with development when making decisions about them.
Some towns might see that as a threat, but, for Svaneke, it is a relief and a recognition of the work local groups have put into keeping the town looking much the same as it did in the 19th century—to the extent that the owners of homes whose chimneys had been removed by past owners were at one point told to add one, even if it served no function. Their fervour and attention to detail has already been twice honoured: first in 1975, by the Council of Europe, and again in 2014 by Danes in a popular vote to find the country’s prettiest market town.
When the European award was given, Palle Lauring, a popular historian, said of the town’s efforts, “the people of Svaneke were satisfied that their town was as it was.” Apparently, visitors have been too. Svaneke is the most visited town on Bornholm, and Bornholm is Denmark’s biggest tourism destination. That can make Svaneke a crowded place during the high season, but, those who come say it is a nice place to visit because people want to live there.
(📸 A Savin)
Seven countries in the Nordic-Baltic region have agreed to pool their resources to stave off cyberattacks. Funded by the EU, hosted by Denmark, and with the participation of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway, the Nordic-Baltic Cyber Consortium will serve as a means for national cyber-security agencies in the seven countries to share information and to work together to develop new ways to counter cyberthreats.
The threat of cyberattack is not unique to the Baltic region, but the countries taking part in the consortium are among the most digitalised in the world, and thus particularly at risk. One strategy to protect themselves would be to take their foot off the pedal and move some services offline again, but that would mean losing many of the efficiency gains digitialisation has created, especially in the public sector. Doing so would also spoil plans to roll out artificial intelligence. By doubling down on digitalisation, they have decided that what makes them vulnerable is also what can make them stronger.
Employees of LRT, the Lithuanian public broadcaster, began a three-day protest today as members of the Seimas opened discussion of a law that would make it easier to dismiss its director-general. Some 1,500 journalists and cultural figures gathered to raise alarm that the measure—which comes on the heels of a decision to reverse a planned 11% budget increase over the next three years—is an attack on LRT’s independence and an encroachment on free speech.
Earlier in the month, 10,000 people gathered for a similar protest, and many Lithuanians say hamstringing LRT puts Lithuania on a path already laid out in Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. That is indeed bad company, but the reality is that public broadcasters throughout Europe have come under increased political scrutiny. Cases such as the BBC’s misleading editing of a Donald Trump speech adds fuel to the critics’ fire, but the big scandals are rare, and, indeed, their reporting is deemed as being critical, fair and necessary by both the public and experts alike. No wonder why the lawmakers are irritated.
A frequent topic of discussion on Bornholm is the island’s declining population. Despite efforts to attract new residents, more islanders die or move off the island each year than can be replaced by birth or in-migration. One bright spot has been the number of foreigners coming to the island to work. One in eight jobs is held by a non-Dane; in 2008, it was one in 30. That is the largest per-capita increase in Denmark in the period, and it was enough to help the island keep its workforce stable.
The typical foreigner still works in hospitality or agriculture—where they have all but become indispensable for firms—but the shrinking workforce means there are a growing number of opportunities for them in a broader range of fields. There may be soon be new jobs where their labour will be needed: Energy Island Bornholm, a power-converter for offshore wind energy, is expected to create some 1,500 temporary construction jobs, and then perhaps 1,000 permanent jobs running, maintaining and serving the facility. As yet, the energy island is only a proposal, but the workforce it will need is already charging up.