Transportation Minister Rus to discuss Master Plan with European Commissioner Bulc

Transportation Minister Ioan Rus will meet European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport Violeta Bulc on Thursday in Brussels; Romania's Transport Master Plan and current topics of the EU transportation policy are on the table.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Rus already discussed the Master Plan on Wednesday with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu. A committee of the Romanian Ministry of Transportation had technical talks on this document with EC representatives last week.

Rus declared that the General Master Plan for Transportation (MPGT) was the result of consultations with EC experts throughout the drafting process. He pointed out that Romania should immediately start implementing the plan after concluding the negotiations with the Commission. Romania intends to use for the MPGT projects the expertise and funds of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), within the seven billion euros limit approved by the Government for infrastructure development, the minister added. He said the idea of a triple source of financing ? European funds, state budged, and EIB and EBRD funds ? was inspired by the Juncker Plan, and it should result in better results of the MPGT.

The reviewed version of the MPGT sent to the European Commission on May 6 includes plans for 1,300 kilometres of motorways, worth 13.739 billion euros; 1,817 km of highways for 9.935 billion euros; 2,887 Trans-Regio roads for 1.7 billion euros; 343 km of Euro-Trans roads for 190.1 million euros; and 175.8 km of beltways worth 461 million euros.

The Romanian Government passed a memorandum on the MPGT on February 25; it sets total financing requirements of 45.45 billion...