Bulgaria and Romania will work for the construction of a third bridge over the Danube river which will connect Silistra with the Romanian town of Calarsi. This is what Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and his Romanian counterpart Trayan Basescu agreed on at the meeting held during the 18th summit of the Heads of State of the Central and East European countries that it taking place in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava. For building the bridge the two countries will seek different options to ensure funding under the EU structural funds, the Cross-border Cooperation Program and the Danube Strategy.
In Bratislava Rosen Plevneliev and Trayan Basescu reached an agreement to improve coordination with regard to their positions and actions related to Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the Schengen border-free area.
The two presidents joined the initiative to write a letter together with the heads of state of Austria, Hungary and Turkey to Azerbaijani President lham Aliyev in support of the Nabucco-West project for the transit of Caspian gas to Europe. There are expectations that the Shakh Deniz 2 consortium will make a positive decision on the gas pipeline’s construction at the end of June.
In his statement made at the forum, President Rosen Plevneliev called for a greater connectedness and integration between the countries in the region. The Head of State said that work should be done so as to connect the energy networks, the transport infrastructure, the docks and this will be a condition ensuring economic growth. According to the Head of State, Croatia’s accession to the EU has set a good example for the other countries from the Western Balkans and this process must continue, based on the European values and good neighborly relations.
The Bulgarian president praised Serbia and Kosovo for reaching an agreement to normalize their relationships, which opens up prospects for their quicker accession to the EU.
Rosen Plevneliev told his counterparts from Central and East Europe that there were no prescriptions for recovery from the financial and economic crisis and therefore solutions had to be sought at the regional level.
Within the 18th summit in Bratislava the Head of State will hold bilateral meetings with the presidents of Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine.