Bulgaria's authorities are striving to absorb up to EUR 2 B for transport and infrastructure from the EU funding slated for the country for the 2007-2013 financial programming period, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski has stated.

Moskovski told students at the Sofia University of Architecture, Construction, and Geodesy on Wednesday that 1/3 of the total funding for Bulgaria under EU Operational Program "Transport" have already reached the end beneficiaries.

Thus, over EUR 308 M have been paid under OP Transport to the Bulgarian beneficiaries only in 2011, which is three times the amount absorbed in 2007-2010.

Eight large-scale projects, each worth over EUR 50 M, are being funded by OP Transport in Bulgaria, which has a total of budget of over EUR 2 B, of which EUR 1.6 B are EU money, explained Galina Vasileva, head of the Program and Project Coordination Directorate at the Bulgarian Transport Ministry.

In her words, the second EU funding programming period for Bulgaria in 2014-2020 will allow for long-term planning and prioritizing, with five major priorities being on the table: development of roads and railways, improvement the navigation of the Danube River, improving intermodality in the transportation of passengers and freight transport, development of city transport networks, and introduction of innovations in transport services and management.

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