The Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Rossen Jeliazkov and the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginjius Sinkevicius opened a virtual Ministerial Meeting on the Common Maritime Agenda in the Black Sea. The initiative includes representatives of the European Commission and the countries of the Black Sea region – Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Bulgaria is the first coordinator of the initiative since its establishment in May 2019.
"Black Sea countries should focus their efforts on common projects in the most affected by the pandemic sectors of the blue economy. These are maritime transport, coastal and sea tourism, fishing and aquaculture", said Minister Jeliazkov in his speech. According to him, now is the time, with the support of the European Commission, to identify and launch flagship projects to restore the blue economy in the Black Sea, with a view to faster overcoming of the consequences of the COVID crisis.
Within the meeting topics such as the European Union's Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the new Next Generation EU instrument were discussed, which will soon be adopted, with a budget of € 1.8 trillion. This includes the Neighborhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, which with the planned € 98.4 billion could finance joint initiatives of the Black Sea countries.
"Bulgaria, within its mandate as a coordinator, proposed to implement a project for monitoring and management of maritime traffic in the Black Sea. The concept aims at providing opportunities for determining the exact time of arrival of ships in ports, reduce harmful emissions from ships, limit the impact of the human factor and administrative burden", added the Minister.
Rossen Jeliazkov expressed confidence that Turkey, which will be the next country to take over the coordination in 2021, will continue the good dialogue and effective work between the countries.
