Romanian roads doubled in trans-European transport network, finance hopes boosted

Romania will have more easily available and potentially higher financing for building transport infrastructure after the EU's Transport Council expanded the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) to Romanian territory. Five new routes have been added, doubling the size of the road network in Romania and increasing it by 40 percent for railway transport. The roads and railways connecting Timișoara-Sebeș-Turda-Târgu-Mureș-Iași-Ungheni and Calafat-Craiova-Alexandria-Bucharest have been included in the expanded project. The routes Borș-Turda and Constanța-Tulcea-Brăila-Galați have also been included, as well as the Danube – Bucharest channel, which is now on the core network for TEN-T. “After very long and tough negotiations with the Commission during the last year and a half, we finally imposed the routes for the TEN-T networks that directly support our economic development for the next period. Romania got a doubling of the road network on its territory and an East – West axis of regional importance,” said Transport Minister Alexandru Nazare. Including the highway segment Târgu-Mureș - Iași – Ungheni will lay the groundwork for development corridors in Romania's Northern area and a future connection to the Republic of Moldova, he further explained. With these decisions, access to financing will be simplified and the EU funding available for these projects, which are now a priority, will substantially increase, and so will trust and interest from private and international financiers, according to the Transport Ministry. The European Union is supporting the TEN-T implementation by several financial instruments - the TEN-T program, the Cohesion Fund, the European Regional Development Fund and European Investment Bank's loans and credit guarantees. editor@romania-insider.com