Nearly 84m euros will be invested in the development of the border regions between Bulgaria and Greece

Nearly 84 million euros will be invested in the development of the border regions between Bulgaria and Greece in the period 2021-2027 under the Interreg Greece-Bulgaria cooperation program. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Delyana Ivanova. Together with George Zervos - Secretary General of the Ministry of Development and Investment in Greece, Deputy Minister Ivanova co-chaired an online meeting of the Joint Program Committee, which presented the final version of the program. It will fund joint projects of national and regional institutions, local authorities, the civil sector and businesses on both sides of the border.

More than 31m euros of the funds will be invested in strategic infrastructure projects, said Deputy Minister Ivanova. Among them are the preparation of a technical project and investment study for the modernization of the railway line Radomir - Kulata. An intelligent real-time monitoring system of the railway network will be developed, which will allow early detection of preconditions for accidents.

The second strategic project envisages the completion of the main road communication of Smolyan. The goal is to create a ring road of the city, which will take the heavy traffic to the future border crossing Rudozem - Xanthi. On the Greek side, the project plans to upgrade the remaining parts of the road section - from the border to Xanthi, along with measures for digital infrastructure and equipment with border control and security systems in the direction.

EUR 35 million are earmarked for joint projects for response to disasters and emergencies, support for green infrastructure and the circular economy, as well as pollution reduction, Deputy Minister Ivanova said.

An important measure in the program is the support for small and medium enterprises, which will have access to euro funds to promote the circular and green economy, stimulate the business-education relationship and more.

Projects for the development of tourism and cultural exchange will also be financed. As a new measure is the possibility of support for micro or family businesses and social cooperatives working in the field of culture and tourism.

"I believe we have managed to develop a focused and results-oriented program that will make the best use of the available budget. We have struck a good balance between priorities with a fair share for both strategic investment and bottom-up initiatives. The program has a balanced approach to the various stakeholders," said the Deputy Minister.

As in the previous programming period, on the Bulgarian side the program will cover the districts of Haskovo, Smolyan, Kardzhali and Blagoevgrad, and on the territory of Greece - Evros, Xanthi, Rhodopes, Drama, Kavala, Serres and Thessaloniki.

The final project will be approved by the Joint Programming Committee in writing. Prior to the approval of the program by the European Commission, the strategic environmental assessment procedure should be successfully completed.