site.btaBulgaria Is Setting Up Single Border Control System, Transport Minister Says

Bulgaria is setting up a system that will aggregate all entities engaged in border control so as to speed up significantly their operation, Bulgarian Transport and Communications Minister Nikolay Sabev said here on Monday, quoted by his Ministry in a press release. He was speaking at a meeting with Matej Zakonjšek, Director of the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community for the Western Balkans.

Sabev stressed that waiting times at the border should be significantly reduced so as to improve the efficiency of transport chains. 

“We seek to create conditions to ease border crossing, including in the Western Balkans”, he said.

Speaking of Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII, Sabev said that for the first time in many years the route is regarded as a single project rather than as a set of several separate projects. He sees this as a way of increasing the value added by investments and the project’s significance for Europe. Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania strongly support the construction of the Adriatic and Black Seas connection and will work on the project in coordination, Sabev said.

The Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII connects the Albanian Adriatic port of Durres in the west to the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna in the east via North Macedonia.

The Transport Minister added that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania are drawing up a joint statement to the European Commission on the inclusion of the Sofia-Skopje-Tirana-Durres railway in the future Western Balkans corridor, which is part of the Trans-European Transport Network.