site.btaVazrazhdane Insist on Making Hemus Motorway Construction Priority

It is high time to prioritize the construction of the Hemus Motorway and if the Government cannot attract European funds by including it in one of the cross-border corridors, funds should be set aside in the budget for next year and in future budgets, as well as specific deadlines for the motorway's completion, Vazrazhdane insisted in a declaration read in Parliament here on Friday. They called on the other political parties to support so as to avoid the migration processes in these regions. 

October 4 of this year marked the 49th anniversary of when the Hemus Motorway's first sod was turned, MP Kosta Stoyanov pointed out in the declaration. The motorway is hope for those living North of the Balkan Mountains that its construction will improve their way of life by providing connectivity between the major cities located between Sofia and Varna (on the Black Sea), he said. The reality, however, is different, Stoyanov said - almost half a century and more than 34 years after the transition to democracy started, the 420-kilometre route has not been completed, with more than half of its total length yet to be constructed.

The MP added that 70 km of the highway were built before 1989. Simple calculations show that if 10 km were built per year, Hemus should have been ready by now, according to Vazrazhdane. At the same time, they asked why the Trakia Motorway was completed in just a few years. According to the party, the Trakia and Maritsa motorways [which run across southern Bulgaria], were needed by the Western countries to be able to develop their trade with the Orient, which is in their interest. The incumbents failed to get European funding for Hemus, there were many opportunities for this, but there was no desire, for example, to include it in some of the cross-border transport corridors, Stoyanov said.

Is the EU's plan for Bulgaria to be destroyed, plundered, Vazrazhdane asked. "The EU lied to us with promises of a decent life, but in fact we got decay and ruin, not without the assistance of our politicians," the declaration added. 

Northern Bulgaria is dying without the Hemus Motorway, while its completion would increase GDP, bring investments and help the North catch up with South Bulgaria, said Kosta Stoyanov.