DEVELOPING some of Europe's main transport corridors will boost the economic and social ties between Bulgaria and Greece.

This was announced in Thessaloniki on December 8 at a ceremony where Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev and his Greek counterpart Mihalis Liapis signed a joint declaration on accelerated development of the Pan-European transport corridors IV and X.

With the document, the two countries confirmed their plans to improve the railway infrastructure along corridor IV by 2011, to build a highway between the Greek Aegean port of Thessaloniki and the Danubian port of Lom in Bulgaria by 2013 and to improve the currently existing railway link to Lom. The goal is to have a convenient transport link between the two points.

A Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Pan-European transport corridor IV was signed in Warsaw on May 19 1999. A government decision of February 4 2003 approved the document in Bulgaria. The corridor will run through Calafat (Romania), Vidin, Sofia and Koulata on Bulgarian territory to Promachon (Greece). A Sofia-Plovdiv-Koulata branch will connect to the Turkish border.

The development of Pan-European transport corridor X was approved in Helsinki in 1997 and later confirmed on March 15 this year in a memorandum between Bulgaria and Greece. The main line connects Bari and Brindisi (Italy); to Durres, Vlore, Tirana and Cafasan in Albania; to Skopje (Macedonia); to Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas and Varna in Bulgaria. A September 17 2001 cabinet decision approved the corridor.

In the declaration signed in Thessaloniki on December 8, Mutafchiev and Liapis stated their governments' shared intention to relax the terms of passage via the two countries' common border by reducing administrative and technical obstacles to international road and railway transport. They said that a protocol would be signed on cross-border co-operation along corridor X and co-ordination units would be set up at all border checkpoints in South East Europe to facilitate transport and trade.

The two also expressed their desire to liberalise scheduled bus services between Bulgaria and Greece in order to facilitate the cross-border movement of people.

Mutafchiev and Liapis said they would support the building of a high-speed railway network to link the capitals and other major cities in the countries participating in the South Eastern Europe Co-operation Process. Such an agreement is to be signed in January 2006. They also agreed to encourage an increase in railway passenger traffic between Sofia and Thessaloniki.

Liapis said at a news conference that he and Mutafchiev intend to increase border service personnel in order to expedite border-crossing procedures. Early next year, Greece will appoint more officers to the border service at Promachon.

Mutafchiev said the number of passenger and cargo trains running between Bulgaria and Greece would be increased. The sides considered opportunities for two-way container transport, which they see as a way to tackle traffic congestion at the common border.

The two ministers also considered an increase in flights between Sofia and Athens and an initiative to improve the Balkan railway network. The latter initiative will be discussed at a Balkan transport ministerial meeting in Greece.

Experts said that through developing ties with Greece, Bulgaria was looking to find funding to improve railway transport operations inside this country.

Under one of the projects, for example, Bulgaria plans to launch a 200-million euro modernisation of the stretch of railroad tracks between the capital Sofia and the second largest city of Plovdiv, which could be either 135 kilometres long or 160 kilometres long, per two possible routes. 

But Bulgaria's Cabinet still has to decide on how the project will be funded. If it approves debt financing, the Transport Ministry plans to start negotiations with Japanese banks and with the European Investment Bank, said Mutafchiev.