Bulgaria – The Prime Ministers of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania met in Varna, Bulgaria, to sign a joint statement on Monday about their common plan to build highway and a railroad linking all three countries.

Prime Ministers Marcel Ciolacu, Nikolai Denkov and Kyriakos Mitsotakis talked about the importance of a better regional connectivity.
Their common statement highlighted three main points. First, that they are “committed to building intermodal cross-border infrastructure across the Danube River, including new bridges at Giurgiu-Ruse and other locations, also in line with existing European standards for military mobility.”
Second point: “The increasing importance of multidimensional connectivity between our three countries, EU interregional connectivity as well as connectivity in the wider neighborhood requires the further advancement of projects of common interest to radically improve cross-border infrastructure. In addition, we agreed to identify and develop new routes/corridors on the north-south axis linking the three countries through new rail and highway infrastructure.”

Finally, the third and last point of the statement: “Underscoring our shared commitment to connectivity, we agreed to establish a trilateral working group led by relevant ministers, with the aim of preparing and signing in due course a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the financing, development, construction and management of a corridor multimodal transport linking Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, as well as, as a result, a comprehensive trilateral joint agreement based on the Memorandum of Understanding.”

The parties agreed on the need to strengthen and continue the use of the solidarity lines (EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lines) by increasing the capacities of the ports of Constanţa and Sulina, but also ensuring navigability throughout the year on the Danube river, which due to ice in winter can be too dangerous for navigation.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said his country would have submitted the financing application for the development of the feasibility study and related documentation for the „Military Mobility – Feasibility Study for Giurgiu – Ruse II Bridge over the Danube – FSGRB” project, within the call for projects opened on CEF – Military Mobility. The objective of this project is to design a new bridge at Giurgiu-Ruse in order to improve both civilian and military mobility between Bulgaria and Romania.

Half of the project would be funded by the European Union, for a total cost estimated at 14 millions euros. The Prime Ministers ended their statement by declaring that they “discussed relevant issues for our region, but also on topical issues of the European and security agenda”.