Transport Ministry: Slow Collaboration With Bulgaria Delays Study On Joint Danube Project

05.06.2011 By Bostan Radu

The environmental impact study for a joint Romania-Bulgaria project to improve the navigability of the Danube has not been completed, because of "slow" collaboration with Bulgarian authorities, the Romanian Ministry of Transport said in a press release Friday.

The study is part of a contract signed in 2007 and should have been drawn up within 14 months, but has been delayed by unexpected problems, including slow collaboration with Bulgaria, says the Romanian Transport Ministry.

According to the ministry, Bulgarian authorities were slow to send hydrological and bathymetric data to the project's consultant; upon analysis, this data turned out to be unusable, forcing the consultant to carry out the relevant studies and measurements on his own, and causing a delay of about one year.

Bulgarian authorities also took a long time to send their observations concerning the documentation developed by the consultant.

"The initial feasibility study was sent [to the Bulgarians] in December 2008 and the Bulgarian side's observations were received in December 2009. The study's final version was transmitted to the Bulgarian partner on February 9, 2011 and its comments and observations were received on May 5, 2011," says the press release.

The ministry also says that, in July 2008, a meeting of Romanian and Bulgarian environment authorities decided that the Bulgarian partners were to send their guidelines on the environmental impact study; they sent the guidelines in May 2009.

In the latest meeting between the two sides, held in March, concerning the procedure to obtain an environmental permit, Bulgarian officials announced they had extended the Nature 2000 protected areas, meaning the environmental impact studies must be reanalyzed to account for the newly protected zones.

Bulgarian deputy Transport Minister Ivailo Moskovski said on Thursday that Bulgaria will use part of the 138 million leva (EUR70 million) provided by the European Union for the consolidation of the Bulgarian bank of the Danube to expand Sofia's subway network. The minister argued that those funds could not be used for their original purpose, because an environmental study that should have been developed by Romania was overdue.