Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The resources paid out under OP "Transport" have reached 50 per cent of the program budget, which is over 1 billion Euro. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Petar Kirov, during today's opening of a training seminar for journalists under OP "Transport" in Ruse.

Another important indicator so as to prevent misuse of EU funds is the certification of expenditure to the EC, i.e. the request for reimbursement of expenses from the Commission, he added. In his words by this indicator has achieved significant progress, and so far 45 per cent of the European funding under the program is now required for refund, which amounts to over 730 million Euro. "The minimum goal is to report to the EC more 106 million Euro by the end of the year, and thus to eliminate the risk of losing funds", said Deputy Minister Petar Kirov.

Parallel to the implementation of this program we are preparing for the new program period, in which priority shall be given to the ecological transport modes such as rail and water transport, said Deputy Minister Petar Kirov. He specified that among the main priorities in the railway sector will be the completion of the entire rail track from the Serbian to the Turkish and Greek borders as well as complete rehabilitation of the railway line Plovdiv - Burgas. In his words currently the construction of an intermodal terminal in Ruse is being prepared, and it will be built during the next program period. The possibilities for financing the railway line Ruse – Varna are also being considered.

The Deputy Minister Petar Kirov also said that the first Lot of the railway line Sofia - Vidin, which reaches the town of Medkovets, as well as the improvement of navigation on the river Danube, in partnership with Romania, are to be granted funds under Connecting Europe Facility. In conclusion, he stated that the list of projects is even longer, the main challenge being the balance between the needs for infrastructure improvements and the available funding.

During the seminar, the Director of "Coordination of Programmes and Projects" Directorate at MTITC, Mr. Galina Vasileva, presented the general progress on the implementation of OP "Transport".