Romania and Moldova Requested 77 Million Euros from the EU for 2 Joint Projects

Romania has requested 77 million euros from European funds to finance two infrastructure projects connecting Romania and Moldova, said Irinel Ionel Scriosteanu, state secretary of Romania’s Transport Ministry. Thus, Romania and Moldova have submitted two applications for joint financing under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme. The projects are aimed at developing cross-border road and railway infrastructure both on the Romanian and Moldovan sides, mold-street.com wrote. The first project financed is the Albita (Romania) - Leuseni (Moldova) bridge, as well as an 8-kilometre access road, which will modernize and equip the border crossing point. “We will build a bridge over the Prut River on the Romanian side, 161 meters long, with 4 lanes, 2 in each direction. On the Moldovan side, we will modernize 8 km of access road, two lanes in each direction,” Ionel Scriosteanu specifies. The total cost is around €87.56 million, of which EU funding is 50 %, or €43.78 million. The amount of support requested by the Romanian beneficiary is around 17 million euros. The second project aims to rehabilitate the Roman - Iasi - Border - Ungheni railway. According to a Romanian official, this means: “Phase I - works on electrification and ‘light modernization’ of the Iasi - border line on direct current. Phase II - comprehensive modernization works on direct and branch lines covering the following areas: - There are 17 km of railway between Socola and the border (Romania); - Between the border (Romania) and Ungheni (Moldova) - 1.68 km of single-track railway, including a bridge over the Prut River.” “The famous bridge, which was the main symbolic point of the Bridge of Flowers in the 1990s, will also be restored,” according to the secretariat of Romania’s Transport Ministry. The total cost of the project is €67.63 million, of which EU funding is 50%, or €33.81 million. The support for the Romanian beneficiary amounts to €30.23 million. According to Ionel Scriosteanu, the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure submitted a total of 12 projects worth 678 million euros, of which CEF’s contribution is 466 million euros, with co-financing rates of 50-85%.