Bulgaria and Greece will seek funding from all possible international sources, including the EU and NATO, to improve transport connections between them, according to information provided to Euractiv Bulgaria by the government in Sofia.
At the start of last week, Defence Minister Todor Tagarev announced that Bulgaria would invest €6 billion in civilian infrastructure, which would also support military purposes, given the risks of Russian aggression in Ukraine. However, the minister did not specify where the country will find funding.
The projects include the construction of Transport Corridor 8 between the Albanian port of Durres and Varna, the largest Bulgarian city on the Black Sea. The other major project is to build a highway between the largest Romanian port of Constanta and Thessaloniki, which passes through the Bulgarian ports of Varna and Burgas.
These transport connections are key to the security of the Eastern flank, having in mind plans to deploy a NATO brigade in Bulgaria with a strength of over 1,500 soldiers.
When asked by Euractiv whether there would be a possibility that part of the money for the transport links would be provided by the EU or NATO, the Bulgarian government did not deny the possibility and added that Bulgaria and Greece are working under an agreement of common interest.
“The Bulgarian government is working for a complex agreement with Greece regarding mutual economic interest. Once it is finalised, all possible instruments will be used for its financial provision, as it is a question of complex, large-scale and multi-component projects”, the Bulgarian government’s response to Euracitv said.
The war in Ukraine made the road corridor from the Greek city of Thessaloniki through Kavala, Alexandroupolis, Burgas and Varna to the Romanian port of Constanta particularly significant, with plans to extend the corridor to Moldova.
Last week, Bulgarian Defence Chief Admiral Emil Eftimov noted that these roads are important for rapidly deploying NATO forces. According to Euractiv’s information, despite their strategic importance, the projects can be implemented in up to six years.
Part of these corridors is the 113-kilometre Black Sea highway between the Bulgarian cities of Varna and Burgas, which, until the beginning of the war in Ukraine, was not considered an important European transport corridor and had no chance of financing from Brussels.
The Black Sea highway, which has been discussed in Bulgaria since the 1970s, still has no construction documents prepared.
In April 2024, it is planned to conclude a contract to develop an environmental assessment, the Bulgarian Road Infrastructure Agency told Euractiv.
The environmental assessment is expected to be ready in 2025, and if there is no legal appeal, the highway construction could start at the end of 2025.
The other major project is the road expansion between the Romanian border and Varna, which is nearly 90 km long, and then the road from the future Black Sea highway to the border with Greece.
(Emiliya Milcheva, Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
