By the end of February the projects included in the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan (NRSP) will be submitted for approval by the European Commission, as announced by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Rossen Jeliazkov during an online round table named "For expert discussion and implementation of NRSP", organized by the Railway Signalling, Automation, Telecommunication and Industry Association (RASTIA).
According to the Minister, meetings in such a format are important because they provide an opportunity to hear the views of all stakeholders and partner organizations before finalizing the project proposal. "The plan was not created on its own and out of any context, it should be considered as a system with the European Structural and Investment Funds and the Connecting Europe Facility", Jeliazkov added. "All projects are elaborated in the context of the National Development Program Bulgaria 2030 and in compliance with the UN Sustainability Goals and the Green Deal", he said as well.
The Minister announced that the main elements in the "Transport connectivity" component are aimed at investments in railway transport, incl. infrastructure and new trains, road safety and sustainable urban mobility, through the supply of rolling stock for urban and interurban transport.
Dimitar Savov, Director of “National Transport Policy” Directorate in MTITC, explained that one of the main goals of the projects is to achieve balanced development of the transport network in all regions of the country and therefore most of the projects are in Northern Bulgaria.
"The green deal gives us a great chance to focus on rail transport, because it provides additional opportunities and tools for balanced development of road and rail transport", also pointed out Dimitar Savov. Much attention in it is paid to the "user pays" principle. "In this sense, the determination of tolls for the use of the road network should optimally reflect air pollution and amortization of infrastructure by vehicles," stated Dimitar Savov.
