New Danube Bridge project to bring Bulgaria-Romania border prosperity

The historic Danube Bridge II began its construction yesterday, with the prime minister of Bulgaria, Sergei Stanishev, symbolic ground breaking at the bridge’s proposed location at Vidin-Calafat reported the Bulgarian News Agency.

Once complete in 2010 and at a total cost of €236 million (£161 million), the Danube Bridge II will span nearly 2 km and is claimed by the Bulgarian government to be one of the country’s “biggest and most complex” infrastructure projects to date.

Located at the 796th km of the Danube River, the decision to construct a second bridge between Vidin on the Bulgarian side and Calafat the Romanian town opposite commented Stanishev,”is an important part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor IV passing from Thessaloniki through Sofia and Vidin to Romania by providing connection to Central and Western Europe”. Mr Stanishev added that the construction of the bridge is not only a significant event for the local region, but also for the entire European Union. It will reunite the European continent bringing Turkey closer to Europe.

“The start of the construction of Danube Bridge II exemplifies what Bulgaria’s EU full membership means because without … the European Commission’s support, Bulgaria would have hardly ever begun the real construction of the bridge,” he commented. Mr Stanishev concluded his speech by saying that a strong transport infrastructure system is a requirement for a prosperous economy.

For the 18,000 people of jaded Calafat and downtrodden Vidin, population 68,000 “this bridge is the bridge of hope,” says Ivan Tsenov, the mayor of Vidin. Apart from literally joining these formally estranged countries closer together, the Vidin-Calafat bridge should help one of Europe’s least developed regions. Vidin, is the main city in one of Bulgaria’s poorest regions in it’s northwest corner close to the border with Serbia. The city’s former Viennese opulence remains shrouded by ramshackle buildings, decrepit streets and empty shops and the official unemployment rate stands at 26 percent. Ivan Tsenov, told Balkan Insight, the prospect of a new bridge had already provoked the interest of numerous Bulgarian and foreign investors, raising real estate prices in Vidin and neighbouring towns. “It will bring investments, new jobs and higher payments.” he said. “The bridge will not be so important to the development of Calafat as what will be built around the bridge,” said Romania’s Calafat Mayor Petre Traistaru, locals are very optimistic about the long-term economic impact in the region. Local residents have high expectations since the bridge has been talking about the bridge for so many years and believe it’s important for young people to have work so they don’t have to leave the area. People are expecting jobs and the bridge should mean people will have more money. According to a consultant’s report, the construction itself will directly create 980 jobs and pump €57 million into the local economies on both sides.

Currently these two towns have the closest relations along the lower stretch of the river the regular ferry service ensure locals here have regular interchange with their neighbours across the border but this has not always been the case given that during the Communist era many Romanians felt “the best neighbour of Romania is the Black Sea.”

Despite their geographical proximity and never having had any serious conflicts Romania and Bulgaria have never been close, at odds over politics, language and culture. Romania’s then leader Ceausescu pursued an independent foreign policy whilst Bulgaria’s Todor Zhivkov aligned himself with Moscow. Romanian linguist roots are closely tied to latin whilst the Bulgarian mother tongue is Slavic in origin like most other Eastern European languages.

It is these factors which have made the Danube form a barrier between Romania and Bulgaria despite being an essential artery for cultural and commercial exchange in Central Europe, making this bridge only the second connection over two neighbours 500km river border. Built in 1954, the Ruse-Giurgiu “Friendship Bridge”, also known as the Danube Bridge is currently the only other crossing over the Danube shared between the countries and lies 3 hours from Bulgarian capital Sofia but just half an hour from Romanian’s central city Bucharest.

Since their isolation from the rest of Europe due to the wars in Yugoslavia , the bridge will bring Romania and Bulgaria closer together and will be a concrete result of their mutual cooperation to resurrect themselves as part of the European Union. This union has led to ‘intensive’ development of Romanian-Bulgarian relations and according to the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, trade between the countries has increased more than sevenfold since 1995, to $1.12 billion in 2005.

However, it wasn’t until 2000, courtesy of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, an international institution designed to promote stability in the region after the Yugoslav wars, pushed the two countries to sit down and agree on the Danube Bridge II project. Now after years spent arguing over the location and funding secured in 2004 from the EU Phare and ISPA programs, the European Investment Bank, the Frankfurt-based development bank KfW and Agence Francaise de Developpement Development (AFD), and co-financed by Bulgaria’s Exchequer, Spanish firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas is expected to finally start construction of the new Vidin- Calafat Danube II bridge in August and with it a much needed economic jolt to the region.