Bulgaria, Romania to Hold Joint Cabinet Session

The governments of Bulgaria and Romania are due to sit together on Friday in the southwestern Romanian town of Craiova, officials have said.

After the joint session Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is set to meet his Romanian counterpart Victor Ponta and then the Serbian head of government, Aleksandar Vucic.

Trilateral talks involving the Borisov, Ponta, and Vucic are also scheduled, according to the government's information service.

The Bulgaria-Romania session involves bilateral projects such as the construction of new bridges over the Danube river, with proposals including new crossing points between Calarasi (Romania) and Silistra (Bulgaria) Nikopol (Bulgaria) - Turnu Magurele (Romania).

The "Vertical Gas Corridor" will also enter into the agenda, along with steps to help build the European Energy Union across the 28-nation bloc, which EU leaders hope will boost diversification and safety of supplies.

Earlier this week Bulgaria, Romania and Greece signed an agreement to start construction of the Vertical Gas Corridor, which will include Bulgaria's gas interconnectors with Romania and Greece and will integrate networks to increase energy security and help all three nations receive gas from Azerbaijan in the future.

Cooperation on projects under the so-called Juncker Plan will also be discussed.

Three of four Bulgarian Deputy Prime Ministers will accompany PM Borisov to Craiova. These include Meglena Kuneva, Rumyana Bachvarova (also Interior Minister) and Ivaylo Kalfin (also Social Policy Minister).

Among Bulgarian ministers to attend are Bozhidar Lukarski (Economy), Temenuzhka Petkova (Energy), Daniel Mitov (Foreign Affairs), Lilyana Pavlova (Regional Development), Petar Moskov (Health), Desislava Taneva (Agriculture), Ivaylo Moskovski (Transport), and Nikolina Angelkova (Tourism).

These leaves out only finance, sports, justice, culture, defense, and education ministers who are to take part in parliamentary control, along with Deputy PM for Economic Policy Tomislav Donchev (both are part of an ECOFIN meeting in Latvian capital Riga).

Most ministers from Romania's cabinet are also expected to attend.

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