Over 30 years since the
\nanticommunist revolution and nearly 13 years since Romania joined the EU, not a
\nsingle motorway is crossing the Carpathians. At the end of 2019 Romania had
\nonly 850 kilometers of motorway, of which 100 were built by dictator Nicolae
\nCeasescu. A few motorway segments built at great cost are linking our country
\nto our neighbors, rather than allowing the people to get faster to Bucharest or
\neasing their trips to the seacoast. Some of the obstacles included politicians’
\nindifference, bureaucracy but also the selection of builders, who only seek
\nfinancial gain. According to statistics, Liberals and Social-Democrats have had
\nequal shares in governing the country after the 1989 revolution, either by
\nthemselves or part of ruling coalitions. Neither side can however take any
\ncredit in building motorways. Instead they blame each other, in repeated
\narguments meant to boost their election scores. Since 2016, when it entered the
\nopposition, the National Liberal Party has harshly criticized the
\nSocial-Democrats, accusing their incompetence. Last year the former left-wing
\nGovernment started negotiations to sign public-private partnerships for the
\nbuilding of two motorways. In one case a conglomerate from China and Turkey had
\nbeen selected, while in the other case companies from the two states, with
\nmajor works in their home countries, although not in the European Union, had
\nmade bids. After taking power last year, the Liberals have promised another
\napproach, a better one, they say. Accordingly, on Tuesday the Liberal
\nGovernment decided to cancel the public-private partnerships. Prime Minister
\nLudovic Orban explained: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Our goal is simple: cancel all
\nongoing procedures and transfer these projects to the relevant ministries. For instance
\nthe Transport Ministry will take over all transport infrastructure projects,
\nwhereas line ministries taking over other projects should present their implementation
\nplans within a week at the most, so we will know clearly each procedural step
\nwe have to take, the planning of each stage in the project and the funds we
\nhave to earmark for these projects.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Social-Democrats are now
\naccusing the Liberals of backtracking the country by proposing feasibility studies
\ninstead of kicking off construction works for the two motorways. The director
\nof the Pro Infrastructura Association, Ionut Ciurea, has recently estimated
\nthat considering only 43 kilometers of motorway were built in 2019, Romania
\ncould have another 57 kilometers of motorway this year. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu) <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Liberal Government in Bucharest has sanctioned the transfer of large infrastructure projects from the Forecast Commission to the line ministries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":84463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39870,35254,39336,29346],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-large-infrastructure-projects","tag-liberal-government","tag-motorways","tag-social-democratic-party"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n