Bulgaria Presents Transport Policy Priorities to New EU Commissioner

EU Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu (R) welcomes visiting Bulgarian Transport Minister Nikolina Angelkova in Brussels, 3 November 2914. Source: ec.europa.eu

The recent agreement to build two new bridges across the Danube is a major step in improving connections between Bulgaria and Romania, Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu said on Monday.

Cretu held a meeting in Brussels with Bulgaria’s caretaker minister of Transport, IT and Communications Nikolina Angelkova who presented the projects Bulgaria plans to implement under Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure during the period 2014-2020.

“The fact that our meeting was on the agenda of the new Commissioner on her first workday on the job means that we can rely on her support,” Angelkova said in a statement.

Bulgaria and Romania last week signed a memorandum of understanding for conducting feasibility studies for the construction of two new bridges across the river that forms a 500-km border between the two EU member states.

Angelkova told Cretu that Bulgaria will keep the Commission informed about all coordinated moves Sofia and Bucharest will make to secure financing for bilateral projects under "Connecting Europe Facility" (CEF), the EU's new funding mechanism for infrastructure projects of common interest for trans-European transport, energy and telecoms networks.

Presenting the projects on which Bulgaria will focus during the period 2014-2020, Angelkova highlighted the need to include funding for the construction of parts of Hemus motorway in the OP  Transport.

Angelkova announced last month that the assignment for a stretch of Hemus motorway connecting Yablanitsa and Pleven had been prepared and procedures for selecting a contractor were underway.

Sofia has long insisted on obtaining European financing for the construction of the remaining 250 km of its partly-built Hemus motorway to bolster growth and employment in northern Bulgaria. The motorway, of which two sections with a combined length of some 200 km have already been built, will link Sofia with Varna, on the Black Sea coast.

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