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The European Fast Danube project, aimed at improving navigation on the Danube, needs to be quickly implemented, President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, at a joint press conference with his Bulgarian counterpart, Rumen Radev, who is currently on a working visit to Romania.
"In a context in which interconnection is essential for us all, and the Danube plays an important role for both countries, I have discussed with President Radev about the joint objectives that regard, on the one hand, the construction of new bridges across the Danube and, on the other hand, the finding of solutions to ensure navigation on the Danube. We need to quickly implement the European Fast Danube project, co-financed by the European Commission, aimed at improving navigation on the Danube, on the common Romanian-Bulgarian part of the Danube. The interest is a joint one and I am convinced that the Ministries of Transport of the two countries will accelerate discussions in this direction," said Iohannis.
According to the head of state, from the point of view of economic cooperation, Romania is the second commercial partner of Bulgaria among the European Union's member states.
"We are glad to note that, last year, the bilateral commercial flows recorded a significant increase, to over 6 billion euro, by 55 percent higher than in 2020. There is still a high potential for new opportunities in the economic domain and at the sectorial level, including as regards increasing reciprocal investments," Klaus Iohannis showed.
In his turn, the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, emphasized that in the context of the war in Ukraine there is need for interconnection between Bulgaria and Romania at the level of transport, energy, digital, new natural gas connections.
"I expect - and it is a joint appeal of ours to the governments of the two countries - to take powerful measures. We have been speaking for a long time about bridges, speaking about motorways, about rail connections, about pipelines, but this war shows that it is finally time to take measures and combat that gap. Our ambitions for economic, social development - we can't have them without real interconnection," Rumen Radev said.
