At the heart of the Balkans, Bulgaria, which hopes to join the European Union with Romania in 2007, is counting on European funds to help modernise its poor infrastructure, barely maintained since the fall of communism in 1989. "We have to close the gap in the traditional infrastructure" of roads, transportation and the environment that separates Bulgaria from the EU, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said as he presented his 2007-2015 infrastructure strategy. Only one bridge links the two banks of the Danube, which for over 500 kilometres marks the border between Bulgaria and Romania. A project for a second bridge is still unfinished.

Work on Bulgaria's only two highways -- 345 kilometres (215 miles) of roads linking Sofia to Varna and to Bourgas and inherited, uncompleted, from the Communists -- only resumed a few years ago.
Residents in the capital still need five to eight hours to reach the Black Sea, 450 kilometres away. Some national roads have benefited from repairs financed by the "PHARE" pre-accession funds from the EU but traffic remains slow as the arteries cross several towns. Other roads in and between cities are full of potholes that cause many accidents. The state road agency says 60 percent of the road network needs to be repaired. "Poor infrastructure is the main obstacle to developing the economy and tourism," Chamber of Industry president Bojidar Danev said recently.

He said it was unfortunate that Bulgaria could not profit from its location "on the most direct route between Europe and the Middle East," while Greece and Romania "are deviating transportation flows through their territory." The 2007-2015 national strategy to develop the infrastructure must indicate a u-turn and "strengthen the competitiveness of the economy," Stanishev said. Some 3.3 billion euros (4.25 billion dollars) are needed to build 717 kilometres of highways by 2015. Repairing and building other roads will cost another 5.7 billion euros. And railroad projects will need 1.2 billion euros. The EU has put 6.8 billion euros at Bulgaria's disposal for 2007-2013, coming from the Cohesion Fund, Structural Funds and the Cross-Border Cooperation Fund, the governmental report said. But according to Finance Minister Plamen Orasharski, European money funds will only finance half the country's strategy and the other half will have to come from its own funds and loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank. The government strategy plans to develop infrastructure for environmental protection, including building canals, organising waste disposal and ensuring the supply of drinking water, as hundreds of localities are subject to water rationing. Developing energy infrastructure is also part of the plan and a project for a Balkan pipeline to transport Russian oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea was discussed Monday in Athens by the Russian, Bulgarian and Greek presidents.

Gas pipelines and a new nuclear plant at Belene, in the north of the country, are on the cards as well. "It is important for our country to be practically integrated into the (European) Union, not only de jure, but also de facto" and the government's strategy will enable that, Stanishev said. vs/ssw/nh/rl