EC Gives Green Light to Bulgaria's Trakiya Hwy

Bulgarian PM Borisov (l) was welcomed in Beirut by his Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri (r). Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, proudly announced Tuesday he had received from the European Commission the Trakiya highway the approved application for the amount of EUR 250 M.

Borisov, who is on an official visit to Lebanon, said 20% of this amount is co-financed by Bulgaria, meaning the country is receiving assistance of EUR 400 M.

"We lowered the highway price by BGN 200 M, compared to what the previous Three-Way Coalition cabinet had as a sum. On the name of all Bulgarians, who used to kill each other on the bad roads, I want to thank the EC President, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the EU Regional Policy Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, for their cooperation. The highway is for generations to come; I am not taking it home with me," the PM told reporters.

Bulgaria's Regional Minister, Rosen Plevneliev, later clarified that with the approval of the application, the EC is grating EUR 350 M for the construction of the Trakiya highway. Since the building contracts stand at EUR 250 M, the remaining EUR 100 M will be redirected to the Sofia metro and the highway to the Kalotina cross-border point between Bulgaria and Serbia.

Borisov further praised Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, for being able to lower the price for the Siemens software for the new Bulgarian ID papers by EUR 14 M from the initial one of EUR 116 M over problems with the German equipment.

The PM is accompanied in Lebanon by Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, and Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov.

Traikov officially opened Tuesday the Bulgarian – Lebanese Business Forum.

On Monday Borisov and Mladenov met with the Lebanon PM, Saad Hariri.

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