Under a EUR 3.5 million European project launched on Wednesday at the Giurgiu City Hall, urban green spaces in the Romanian Danube city of Giurgiu and Bulgaria's town of Vetovo will undergo regeneration and modernization, by increasing biodiversity and mitigating pollution to improve the residents' quality of life, and also promote cross-border cooperation.
"I am glad to be here today together with a very reliable partner, the community of Vetovo, Bulgaria. For the inaugural press conference of this important project for us, we were joined not only by the mayor of this town, but also by a strong delegation of local councilors and officials of the Vetovo municipality. This is about promoting ecosystem resilience through investments in urban and peri-urban green areas. We have a very interesting project that will enhance certain areas of the Giurgiu municipality and of Vetovo to what they really should be," declared Giurgiu deputy mayor Ionel Muscalu.
Vetovo mayor Mehmed Mehmed thanked the Romanian partners for their collaboration, stressing that this partnership also gives rise to mutual friendship which is why the communities will seek to initiate more projects because they live in a common space.
Director of the Danubius Giurgiu-Ruse Euregion Lili Gancheva was also present at the event.
The project is financed under the Interreg 6 A Romania-Bulgaria Program with the priority axis: A Greener Region and consists of the revitalization and modernization of green spaces in both Vetovo and Giurgiu, specifically of urban and peri-urban green spaces. The project aims to increase biodiversity, mitigate pollution and create a sustainable green infrastructure, thus improving the residents' quality of life and promoting cross-border cooperation. Vetovo's green infrastructure will be renovated, the banks of the river that runs through the town will be repaired, the riverbed will be cleaned and an access bridge will be created for educational and recreational purposes. In Giurgiu, the project will be implemented in the surroundings of the Prietenia Lake, where the green space will be modernized, pedestrian alleys and a pedestrian platform for nature observation will be built, the project manager on behalf of the Giurgiu City Hall Roxana Sancov told the press conference.
The total value of the project is approximately EUR 3.5 million and its duration is 36 months.
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