The Bulgarian Transport and Communications Minsiter Plamen Petrov and his Romanian counterpart Tudor Mitrea agreed to reduce transit fees for cargo transport on October 20. They also decided to ease the regulations for the border crossing of trains, which now have to wait for several hours before passing through border control at the Danube Bridge. Petrov attended a session of the mixed intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific and technical cooperation in Bucharest. Bulgaria and Romania agreed to broaden the three narrow sections along the Danube which hinder navigation. Petrov and Mitrea also agreed to create an electronic map of the section of the Danube shared by the two countries. The map is to be presented at the regional donors` conference of the Southeast Europe Stability Pact that will take place on October 25 and October 26 in Bucharest. `The members of the mixed commission also agreed to build a second optic fiber ground connection between Bulgaria and Romania,` Petrov said. Asked about the progress of the work of the clearing of the Danube, Petrov said that the EU has extended EUR 22 M for this purpose, while EUR 4-5 M are provided by the countries along the two banks of the river. According to him Bulgaria`s financial contribution in the clearing of the waterway is disproportionally high. He did not mention any figures. `The Bulgarian transport infrastructure is not at all developed,` Petrov said, adding that `chaos and confusion rule the sector`. Petrov thinks that Bulgaria is last among East European countries in terms of transport infrastructure development. `This is the backbone of the economy and things should change quickly so as to help the development of all other sectors in the Bulgarian economy,` Petrov commented.

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