STABILITY PACT BRINGS ROMANIA AND BULGARIA TO AGREEMENT ON DANUBE CROSSING

A problem which has been on the table for more than a decade, the construction of a new bridge across the Danube River to link Romania and Bulgaria, has made a decisive step toward resolution. At a meeting between Romanian and Bulgarian government representatives, brought together in Brussels at the intitiative of Bodo Hombach (Stability Pact Co-ordinator) and in close co-operation with Günter Verheugen (EU Enlargement Commissioner), agreement concerning a bridge and its location was signed on the evening of 7 February.

"This is major progress and a significant breakthrough" said Bodo Hombach and Günter Verheugen jointly after the successful conclusion of the meeting. "Hundreds of kilometres of Danube without a bridge, between two key countries of the region, might have been acceptable in the middle-ages, but not at the turn of the 21^st century. Today Finance Minister Muravey Radev of Bulgaria and Transport Minister Trajan Basescu of Romania, together with us, have signed a document which makes clear a joint resolve to change that situation for the better, and as soon as possible".

The agreed minutes of the Brussels meeting make clear that the technical design will start not later than May 2000, and construction will begin as soon as possible thereafter. The location of the bridge, which will be precisely determined before 20 March this year, will be arranged to optimise the routing of the Southern Branch Pan-European Transport Corridor IV (a corridor running from Berlin to south eastern Europe), as backbone of the future Trans European Transport Network. The estimated cost of the bridge is up to € 190 million: it is being considered as a possible priority project for funding to be presented to the Stability Pact Regional Financing Conference on 29-30 March.