Three Seas Initiative – 10 years
The interim president Ilie Bolojan reaffirmed Romania's interests at the Three Seas Initiative summit in Warsaw.
Daniela Budu, 30.04.2025, 14:00
The leaders of the Three Seas Initiative, convening in Warsaw on Tuesday, took stock of the 10 years since the establishment of this platform for dialogue and cooperation between countries in the central and eastern European Union and set the directions for the next decade. They looked at how investments can be boosted and strategic interconnection projects in the fields of energy, transport and IT can be implemented, with a view to encourage economic development and bridge the gaps to the western part of the Union. The main theme of the Warsaw summit was connectivity.
Attending the meeting, the interim president of Romania Ilie Bolojan said that an important direction in the 10 years since the Three Seas Initiative was set up has been the increase in north-south interconnection, both in terms of energy and by rail and road.
Ilie Bolojan mentioned that an important project for Romania is Via Carpathia, and explained that the Romanian authorities are in the tender stage for some sections of the project. Via Carpathia is a network of expressways and motorways that connect northern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the south, via Romania, to the Black Sea and also through the Balkans, to the Adriatic Sea.
The Economic Forum that took place on the sidelines of the Warsaw summit also aimed to strengthen economic relations and cooperation between the 13 participating states. The acting president of Romania gave an address in which he stated that the success of the Three Seas Initiative also depends on the capital of private companies, given that governments cannot and should not be the only engine of development.
He said that in collaboration with private companies Romania managed to develop important projects in the energy sector, and advocated for the development of energy corridors on as many axes as possible. As for the north-south transport corridors, they remain, according the interim president, insufficiently developed:
Ilie Bolojan: “For Romania, the road and railway infrastructure projects Via Carpathia and Rail-2-Sea remain major priorities. In addition to the motorway sections already completed, the entire Via Carpathia project on Romanian territory is in the contracting stage, over a length of almost 200 km. With the Republic of Moldova we have important projects, new road bridges over the Prut River, these days we are starting the construction of a new bridge, in Ungheni. As for Ukraine, we are considering opening new border crossings and increasing the transit capacity of the existing ones.”
On the sidelines of the 3SI summit in Warsaw, Ilie Bolojan had talks with his Bulgarian counterpart, Rumen Radev, on bilateral consolidation within the EU and NATO, in order to develop infrastructure interconnectivity, but also to increase security cooperation, with the aim of strengthening the economies of the two countries and NATO’s Eastern Flank. (AMP)
