Bulgaria, Greece and Romania plan joint EU funding bid for rail corridor

The European Commission holds out Connecting Europe Facility funding for trilateral projects that can be completed by 2030 if joint proposals are submitted by mid-September 2026; Bulgaria names a third Danube bridge between Ruse and Giurgiu as its first priority.

Bulgaria, Greece and Romania intend to apply jointly for EU funding to modernise the Thessaloniki–Sofia–Bucharest rail line and to synchronise planning, permitting and construction; this emerged from a first working meeting with the European Commission at the end of January 2026, which followed up a memorandum on the new corridor signed in December 2025. The Commission holds out Connecting Europe Facility funding for trilateral projects that can be completed by 2030 if proposals are submitted by mid-September 2026. Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Grozdan Karadžov named as priorities a third Danube bridge between Ruse and Giurgiu, the repair of the existing Danube Bridge 1 planned for completion by June 2026 together with electrification of an 11 km section from Ruse (contractor to be chosen by year-end), preliminary studies for two further Danube bridges, and the resumption of the Sofia–Thessaloniki train service next year, ten years after the last through train. (LOK Report, 2 Feb 2026)