Public Relations and Protocol

"Results are obtained when working with the energy of the whole society and there is sensitivity to any interest", the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev said after the second meeting to discuss the Master Plan of the Port of Burgas East 1.

An agreement on the project was reached by all stakeholders.

The representatives of the legislative, executive and local authorities discussed all the proposals made and were unanimous that they are in the interest of the future development of the Port, as well as the city and the State.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Bozhidar Kostadinov met with representatives of the Polish railway industry. During the discussion, the possibilities for cooperation between Bulgaria and Poland were discussed.

Deputy Minister Kostadinov said that the exchange of experience is a useful move for sustainable development. "The Ministry of Transport and Communications ensures maximum transparency in the event of international investor interest, which in turn leads to a quality result", he added.

The team that prepared the Digital Connectivity part of the Recovery and Sustainability Plan today explained the goals and financial parameters of the executive directors of A1, Vivacom and Yettel.

"Plovdiv Railway Junction is one of the most important railway sites in Bulgaria, of great regional, economic and strategic significance. With the modernization of infrastructure and new rolling stock we will achieve the strategic goal - Bulgaria on track. This is our goal, which we would like to develop and achieve, namely the society to benefit from modern, fast and comfortable railway transport", the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Bozhidar Kostadinov said during the first-sod-turning ceremony of a project for the development of Plovdiv Railway Junction.

War in Ukraine increases the need to create an International Transport Corridor Persian Gulf - Black Sea. This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Stoyan Novakov at the opening of the 6th Expert Meeting on the Multilateral Agreement on the Transport Corridor.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications sent letters to the mayors of Ruse and Burgas, asking them to take action to transfer ownership of Ruse Airport and Ravnets Airport to the structure of the Ministry.

This is part of a targeted policy to restore the operation of small regional airports.

Minister Sabev proposes that airports become state-owned within the meaning of Art. 43 b of the Civil Aviation Act. This will allow them to be managed by an airport operator with 100% State participation, and without the need for changes in the laws.

The Minister of Transport and Communications will present the vision for the development of public transport in the period 2022-2027. Minister Sabev is the patron of a forum dedicated to the sustainable development of public passenger transport.

Sabev will talk about the integration of modes of transport, ensuring transport connectivity and awarding transport through concessions. Public-private partnership is a focus of the Ministry's Policy in the current term.

The Civil Aviation Administration hosts a seminar on cybersecurity. The event is organized in the period 5-7 April 2022 together with EUROCONTROL under Support to States (STS) Policy.

Today, at a meeting between the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev and the Chief Executive Officer of Meridiam Thierry Déau, it was agreed that the Investment Plan for the first five years will increase from the initially planned 43 million euros to 72 million.

The initiative belongs entirely to Minister Nikolay Sabev, and the agreement was reached after a series of meetings between the two sides.

Meridiam Investment Fund is the owner of the concessionaire of Sofia Airport SOF Connect.

Twice as many train tickets have been purchased through the BDZ website since the beginning of the year. In March, more than 8,700 tickets were reserved and paid for through the website, and more than 24,000 visitors were recorded. In the first days of the mandate, the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev assigned BDZ - Passenger Transport EOOD, together with Information Services AD to improve the system for electronic ticketing.

Bulgaria will build a national infrastructure and supply, installation and personalization of a graphical user interface for Integrated Maritime Surveillance, allowing cross-border and transectoral exchange of information within Bulgaria and the European Union, based on the CISE data model.

The platform of a national CISE Node will be built under the project "Implementation of Integrated Bulgarian Maritime Surveillance (InBulMarS), based on a Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for monitoring the EU maritime territory - with the acronym InBulMarS 2 ”.

The number of registered electric cars in Bulgaria should reach nearly 30,000 by 2026. This is what the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Vladimir Varbanov stated in Ruse during a Round Table on energy efficiency in transport and prospects for the use of low-carbon energy in the Danube region. He pointed out that currently there are less than 10,000 registered electric cars.

We want to preserve and restore the building of Nova Zagora Railway Station. This is what the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev said within a public discussion upon his initiative on the project for modernization of the Station.

Today, the Minister of Transport invited experts from Germany to prepare a logistical plan for the development of multimodal transport in Bulgaria and the efficiency of the transport network in our country. That was announced during a meeting between the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev, Deputy Minister Vladimir Varbanov and a representative of the Executive Board of the Port of Duisburg Thomas Schlipköter.

In the current year we are opening a new border crossing at Zlatograd-Thermes. This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev after meeting today with the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Greece Konstantinos Karamanlis.

The Bulgarian side is committed to taking action to speed up the passage through the Makaza-Nymphea checkpoint by installing scales for trucks. The aim is to alleviate traffic at the Kulata-Promahon border checkpoint. Next year, a checkpoint near Rudozem and Xanthi will be opened, the Bulgarian Minister of Transport added.

The European Commission has approved the allocation of BGN 60 million in compensation to air carriers. The funds were provided from the State Budget and transferred to the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The financial assistance is intended as a measure to support air carriers to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Daniela Vezieva has been appointed a Member of the Board of Directors of Holding BDZ EAD.

She will take the position after recording it in the Commercial Register.

"The thorough focus of the economic model will be on the customer. The railways are the green future of European Bulgaria", Vezieva commented on her priorities.

War in Ukraine has proved that we are on the right track with the Government's Policy of opening more transport links with neighboring countries. This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev during the Annual Business Meeting with the Government, organized by Capital. According to him, there are already problems in the supply chains. Many insurers do not want to be responsible for ship charters for loading and unloading in the Black Sea basin. "We have been working very actively on alternative supply chains for several weeks now", Minister Sabev said.

No investments have been made in the railways in the last 30 years and the carrier has been deliberately bankrupt. This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev during a Round Table on "Restructuring of railway transport and implementation of the European program for reconstruction and development - a new perspective of the railways." He added that 45% of BDZ's rolling stock is out of operation and is not included in the company's repair program, while half of the applications were rejected due to inability to fulfill them.

In the current unstable geopolitical context, Bulgaria supports the development of the European Union's international communication connectivity through the construction of submarine cables. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Dilyan Berkovski during his participation in an informal council of ministers under the auspices of the French Presidency, format: "Transport, Telecommunications and Energy". Bulgaria is preparing projects for additional connections across the Black Sea with neighboring countries.