The European Investment Bank agreed Friday to help build Bulgarian
highways together and could also provide financing for Sofia's part of the
Nabucco gas pipeline project.
"
Bulgaria
has
the right to get funds from the E.U. budget but you have to be ready with
projects," EIB President Philippe Maystadt said after talks with Bulgarian
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
"So we discussed not only what the EIB could do to finance but also what
the EIB could do to help prepare the projects," Maystadt said, noting that
highway plans were a "priority" in the talks.
"Next month we will start the technical assessment for the preparation of
the Struma highway...which is part of the European Union Corridor 4 [between
Germany and Turkey]," Maystadt said.
According to Borisov, the EIB will help co-fund the 156-kilometer link from
Sofia
to
the Kulata border checkpoint with
Greece
,
which is to be built with money from the EU Transport Operational Program.
EIB experts would also "monitor and control" the project, Borisov
said without elaborating. "This will guarantee swiftness, transparency and
good expertise," he said.
Bulgaria
has
only about 400 kilometers of highways and none of its border-to-border
transport corridors is finished, prompting Borisov to make highway construction
a priority of his government.
The Balkan country lacks good project preparation capability to make full use
of the billions of euros of funding available to it under EU programs, experts
said.
Sofia
has already been stripped of part of the money in
the past due to corruption concerns.
Borisov also said Friday that the EIB was ready to help finance
Bulgaria
's
share in the EU flagship Nabucco pipeline project, bringing gas from the
Caspian
Sea
region to
Europe
.
"We might use bank guarantees to draw money from the EIB to pay our share
of EUR1.2 billion," Borisov said.
Neither
he nor Maystadt provided any details.