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The two governments admit their inability to spend EU funds put at their disposal, yet Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc thinks there’s nothing in the way of proposing new projects, such as the extension of the high speed rail line Paris-Strasbourg-Bratislava towards Budapest, Bucharest and Constanta.
The joint Romanian-Bulgarian declaration requests that the eligibility of expenses related to projects valued at more than 100 million Euros, backed by the European Commission through the Instrument for Structural Policies for pre- Accession and the Cohesion Fund, and approved between 2000 and 2006, be extended one year. If Brussels does not approve the extension, Bulgaria may have to return between 500 and 700 million Euros for failing to complete several projects or failing to respect the deadlines imposed in the ISPA programme. As for the high speed rail line, Romania’s PM Emil Boc thinks it has to become a priority of the Danube Strategy, Boc said during the Summit of Danubian countries.
The extension was agreed by the Romanian and Hungarian governments in November 2007, but financing is the main problem, with costs estimated at a few billion euros. Romanian authorities said in the autumn of 2008 that Romania and Hungary plan to apply for European Union funds, while relying on Austria’s help, which were to be spent on the prefeasibility
