04.07.2018
At a quadrilateral meeting between the transport ministers of Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Romania, the strengthening of cooperation among the countries to improve transport connectivity in the region was discussed. The meeting took place during the official visit of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to Thessaloniki.
Minister Ivaylo Moskovski informed his colleagues on the progress with the main road and railway projects, as well as with the introduction of an electronic toll system on the Bulgarian highways. He pointed out that the system is expected to be fully operational for cars up to 3.5 tonnes in January 2019 and for cars over 3.5 tonnes by August 2019. The Ministers commented that the key point is to achieve interoperability among the billing systems in neighboring countries. Moskovski specified that this is set as a requirement in the tender documentation and a procedure is forthcoming for selecting a provider of the European electronic toll service.
In the framework of the quadrilateral meeting the Ministers discussed the construction of the multimodal corridor Thessaloniki - Kavala - Alexandroupolis - Burgas - Varna - Rousse, as well as the possible inclusion of Romania in this direction. Minister Moskovski pointed out that with the expansion of the territorial scope of the corridor its profitability increases and for this reason the European Commission has recommended the inclusion of Romania in the project.
Regarding cross-border road and railway connections, Ivaylo Moskovski said the country is working actively to build the largest possible share of roads and railways that will provide transport links with neighboring countries and boost trade and economic ties. He explained that the need for investment is huge, both in the railway and road sector, and the government's expectations are to acheieve a more balanced transport sector upon the introduction of a fairer fee model on Bulgarian roads.
