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Romania and Bulgaria discuss building four new bridges over Danube
A working group of Bulgarian experts will discuss options for building new bridges over Danube, besides those at Giurgiu-Ruse and Calafat-Vidin to be opened soon.On Wednesday, the Bulgarian city Ruse hosted the third meeting of the Bulgarian-Romanian inter-institutional committee for sustainable development of the inland waterways transport in the common Bulgarian-Romanian section of the Danube River, at which meeting it was decided that a working group should be established to analyze the four proposals for new bridges: Calarasi-Silistra, Bechet-Oreahov, Turnu Magurele-Nicopolis and a new bridge at Giurgiu-Ruse. The Deputy Minister for Regional Development Nikolina Nikolova said that this plan is very ambitious and that, at first, there must be chosen the place of the next bridge to be made.
The same view was shared by Karsten Rasmussen, the representative of the Directorate General for Regional Policy of the European Commission, who said that there is no point to be considered simultaneously four new bridges, preferring to focus efforts on a single project. 'Certainly we need four bridges, but let 's start with one', said Rasmussen. He urged the two countries to analyze traffic and to prepare a good project.
According to a press release issued by the Ruse City Hall, the Romanian delegation was led by Secretary of State for Transport Septimiu Buzasu. He confirmed Romania's commitment to improving connectivity between the two banks of Danube.
Besides the working group to analyze the projects for the four new bridges, other three Romanian-Bulgarian groups will work to improve sailing on the river and also to create an European group for regional cooperation.
According to the release, attending the meeting of the committee were also the Bulgarian Minister of Transport, Kristian Krastev, the Romanian Ambassador in Sofia, Anton Pacuretu, as well as Cezare Benarbei, the representative of the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission.