site.btaBulgaria Presents Priorities of Its EU Presidency in Area of Transport and Communications

Sofia, September 28 (BTA) - At a forum in Sofia Thursday, the leadership of the Transport and IT Ministry presented the priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2018 in the areas of transport and communications. "The Presidency of the EU Council is a national cause for us," Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski said. He was there together with his deputies Velik Zanchev, Angel Popov and Dimiter Genovski.

The focus in the Ministry programme is on multimodal transport, competitiveness, moving forward the legislative initiatives in the area and the road transport package, the Minister said.

He said further that Bulgaria views the development of a single digital market as a source of growth and competitiveness. Ensuring the security of personal data and the digital space is also a priority.

As he spoke about the priorities concerning the development of air transport, Deputy Minister Zanchev said that an investment of 1 euro in the sector generates 3 euro of added value for the economy and that each job in air transport creates three more jobs in other sectors of the economy.

During its EU Presidency, Bulgaria will make sure that work continues on the European Commission proposal for a regulation for protection of competition in air transport. The efforts against unfair competition affect mostly air carriers from countries outside the EU which allow subsidizing whereas the EU rules prohibit it.

The priorities are yet to be discussed at the parliamentary transport and telecommunications committee.

The Transport Ministry team reiterated that Bulgaria will insist that international road haulage of goods be exempt of the restriction for a maximum stay of three weeks in Europe as well as the pay restrictions imposed in France, Italy, Austria and Germany.

"The Bulgarian international road transport is very strong and active, and performs a significant share of the road haulage across Europe," said Deputy Transport Minister Popov. He was adamant that the Ministry will back the position of the Bulgarian carriers.

Bulgaria's position is also supported by Poland, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and partially the Czech Republic but the talks are difficult and are unlikely to end by year's end, said also Popov.

"Unfortunately, during our Presidency we go into a silent mode and we can't express an opinion, which will make our task harder but we are not going to step back," commented the Deputy Minister.