European funds for transport infrastructure

The European Commission has earmarked funds for the rehabilitation of Romanias transport infrastructure.

România Internațional, 18.10.2016, 13:35

The European
Commission has approved the allocation of over 226 million euros to upgrade two
railway segments connecting Bucharest to Constanta, on the Romanian Black Sea
coast. The project is included in the EU Operational Programme Transport for
2007-2013, under Priority 1: Upgrading and Development of the TEN-T railway
network, in view of developing a sustainable transportation system and of its
integration with the EU transportation networks.

The upgrading of
the over 80 km of railway on the two segments, namely Bucharest North to Bucharest
Baneasa and Fetesti-Constanta, was initially financed by the Romanian state, in
a project with a total budget of nearly 475 million euros. According to the
European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, the European
Commission thus refunds some of the initial expenses incurred by the Romanian
government for the rehabilitation of the two railway segments. She explained
the decision was in line with the European Commission’s decision on
retrospective project co-funding, in view of improving Romania’s absorption of
European funds. The EU official added that other projects dealing with the
Romanian transport infrastructure were approved as well, and the nearly 450
million euros earmarked for these projects would come from the Cohesion Fund
and the European Regional Development Fund.

The upgrading of
the railway section connecting Bucharest to Constanta is primarily designed to
reduce the duration of the trip between the two cities, to facilitate the shift
from the mainly road traffic between the Romanian capital city and the sea
coast to a safer, more modern form of transport, as well as to reduce air
pollution. Thanks to the rehabilitation project, an estimated 3.7 million
passengers are expected to travel from Bucharest to Constanta by train by 2030,
whereas the freight railway traffic is expected to reach 21 million tonnes a
year. At present, passenger trains travel on the Bucharest-Constanta route at
160 km/h, and freight trains at maximum 120 km/h.

The current
absorption rate for the Operational Programme Transport for the 2007-2013
period stands at over 81%. Until 2020, Romania is allocated 9.4 billion euros
for the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme, with the money coming both
from the European Regional Development Fund and from the Cohesion Fund. More
than half of the sum, namely 6.8 billion euros, including the national
contribution, is earmarked for the transport infrastructure, 37% for the
development of the environment protection sector, and 5% for the energy sector.