The bridge connecting Romania and Bulgaria via Calafat – Vidin will be opened next spring, after some details about the company managing the bridge are settled, according to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov. Borisov and his Romanian counterpart Victor Ponta, together with Johannes Hahn, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy crossed the bridge on Wednesday (October 24 ).

The Romanian PM said Romania did its part of the job for the project, even though Bulgarian representative said something else. Romania's side of the project is 95 percent finished from September 2011. For Bulgaria, the deadline for finishing work was delayed to November 2012, from September 2010.

The delays in the project show the high level of bureaucracy, said the Romanian PM, who reminded of the bridge built by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago, not far from the current site of the bridge. He referred to the bridge built by Apollodorus of Damascus close to the current Drobeta Turnu Severin city in SW Romania. Back then, they needed a year to build it, and now, Governments needed two years to sign a memorandum for the bridge. “I am the fifth Prime Minister after Mugur Isarescu to sign an agreement for this project,” said Victor Ponta.

Romania could not continue the project beyond September 2011 as the Bulgarian side's deadline for execution had been delayed and made it technically impossible for Romania to finish everything. Moreover, the costs went up by EUR 5 million for Romania because of the delay on the Bulgarian side.

The two countries signed the agreement for the two-kilometer bridge across the Danube in 2000, but delayed starting the project because of lack of funds.

The total cost of the project is of EUR 226 million, with Bulgaria covering EUR 60.7 million. Funding for the project comes from the European Union, The European Investment Bank, The French Agency for Development and the German Credit Institution for Reconstruction and Development.

editor@romania-insider.com