Poor Infrastructure Makes Merkel Cut Bulgarian Visit

Diplomacy | October 1, 2010, Friday // 16:32|  views

Borisov and Merkel will be meeting in Sofia October 11-12. Photo by BGNES

Despite original plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will skip the Bulgarian Danube city of Ruse during her upcoming visit to Bulgaria.

Merkel, whose first ever official state visit to Bulgaria will be on October 11-12, will not visit Ruse because of the lack of an airport nearby and the bad roads, according to a report of the Trud Daily.

The German chancellor was supposed to show up in Ruse for about 1.5 hours on October 11 in order to be honored as Doctor Honoris Causa of the Ruse University "Angel Kanchev".

After the Ruse University suggested three options for a route and timeline of Merkel's Ruse visit, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and Merkel's team decided against a visit to the Danube city; thus, Merkel will receive her title from the Ruse University in Sofia instead.

The Shtraklevo Airport near Ruse last received passenger planes in 1996 and has not been in use ever since. In order to travel by car from Sofia to Ruse and back, Merkel would have had to take a roundabout route as the major road Sofia-Pleven-Ruse has been closed for two months because of repairs of the bridge near the town of Byala.

Right after her visit in Sofia, Merkel is supposed to fly over to the Romanian capital Bucharest.

Bulgarian PM Borisov has met with Merkel several times but on German territory. Their last meeting was in January in Berlin, and the October 2010 visit by the German Chancellor will be her first ever visit to Bulgaria.

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Tags: Angela Merkel, Germany, German Chancellor, Ruse, Ruse University, Shtraklevo Airport, roads, infrastructure

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