Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu discussed the matter Thursday in Bratislava (Slovakia), where they attended the 18th summit of head of states of Central and East European countries, according to the Bulgarian Presidential Administration.
The two countries will look for various financing sources to develop the project, such as the Cross-border Cooperation Program, the Danube Strategy and European structural funds.
The news was also reported by Novinite.com.
The two countries will inaugurate later Friday their second bridge over the Danube, which links Calafat (Romania) to Vidin (Bulgaria). Up until now, the bridge between Giurgiu and Ruse was the only bridge over the Danube on the Romanian-Bulgarian border.
The 1,791-meter road-rail Calafat-Vidin bridge is part of Pan-European Corridor IV linking Dresden (Germany) to Istanbul (Turkey).
Construction costs reached almost EUR300 million. According to Transport Ministry data, Romania secured some EUR72.5 million, of which EUR36.6 million came from the state budget and the remainder from EU pre-accession funds.
Bulgaria contributed approximately EUR226 million, with EUR61 million coming from the state budget and the remainder from EU pre-accession funds, the European Investment Bank, the French Development Agency and German bank KfW.