Iulian Mareș, Financial Intelligence, July 14, 2025
Two years ago, we waited six hours to cross the bridge between Ruse and Giurgiu. This year, the wait was only two hours. That’s progress, if you can call it that. But when you consider the economic and political potential of a continuous motorway corridor between Bucharest, Sofia, Skopje, and Tirana, the whole situation seems absurd and leaves a bitter taste of lack of will and petty rivalry typical of the Balkans.
The Bulgarian National Statistical Institute reported in 2024 2.3 million Romanian tourists[1], whose financial contribution to the neighboring country’s tourism sector is estimated at least €600 million[2], an amount that represents the cost of accommodation and other products and services specific to the summer season. For 2025, bookings from Romania for the Bulgarian coast show a 35% increase compared to last year, confirming once again the steady upward trend that has been going on for more than a decade.
Thus, in 2015, the number of Romanian tourists in Bulgaria exceeded 1 million, making it the eighth consecutive year[4] in which Romania has had the largest share of foreign tourists visiting the neighboring country, according to data from the Bulgarian Embassy in Bucharest. Ten years later, Romanians are the most numerous, which means that for almost two decades Romania has ranked first in the ranking of foreign tourists visiting Bulgaria annually. For 20 years, Romanians have played the role of loyal investors in the neighboring economy, as evidenced by the presence of the Romanian language on restaurant menus in Balchik and Varna, as well as on the menus of fast food chains in the Sofia area.
The private sector in Bulgaria has responded positively to the influx of Romanian tourists, as confirmed by Ruse, where the city center is full of Romanian-speaking tourists during the season. The same cannot be said for the reaction of the Bulgarian authorities, who for 20 years have been delaying the improvement of road links with Romania and even now do not seem genuinely interested in returning the financial contribution made consistently by Romanian tourists.
Every year, 3 million[5] Romanian tourists cross the Danube Bridge between Giurgiu and Ruse, most of them heading for the Bulgarian coast, while the rest go mainly to Greece, but also to North Macedonia and Albania. For years, delays in transit across this bridge have been measured in hours in both directions. Hopes that waiting times would be reduced with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area vanished just a few months after this long-awaited moment: in July last year, the Bulgarian authorities began major repairs on the part of the bridge that belongs to them, with a deadline for completion[6] set for summer 2026. Similar major repairs were carried out on the Romanian side of the bridge, but in 2015-2016, i.e. a decade earlier.
In addition, for any Romanian tourist traveling to Sofia, the road is a real hell, as it is congested and in poor condition. The same applies to Bulgarian drivers, as the entire area near Romania does not even have a modernized road network. Vidin, Ruse, Durankulak, and Dobromir are places where Romanian and Bulgarian drivers suffer through no fault of their own because of the road infrastructure, which has been left far behind current needs.
In fact, Bulgaria’s motorway network is concentrated in the southern part of the country, with good road links to Turkey via the Maritsa (A4) motorway and to Greece via the Struma (A3) motorway. The northern part, where Bulgaria borders Romania, has no motorway to facilitate car transit between Bucharest and Sofia, and with it the millions of Romanian tourists who visit the Bulgarian coast every year. The unstable road infrastructure in the northern part of the neighboring country has led to a lag in economic development compared to the southern part, which in turn has led to mass emigration: during the same two decades in which the number of Romanian tourists grew steadily, northern Bulgaria lost 20% of its population[7], a situation in which even some Bulgarian experts recommend strengthening cooperation with neighboring Romania as a countermeasure[8].
At the political level, the need for significant improvement in road mobility between Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece was recognized as early as 2023, when the prime ministers of the three countries signed a joint declaration[9] to that effect. A year later, this desire took on a military character with the signing of a letter of intent to the same effect by the defense ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece at the NATO summit[10] in Washington in July 2024. Probably under this banner, Bulgaria subsequently moved forward with projects such as a section of the Varna-Burgas motorway[11], with a start date of 2027, and a section of the Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo motorway[12], with a deadline of 2029. Added to these is the project for the “Giurgiu-Ruse 2” bridge, for which the Romanian authorities announced a design tender[13] in July this year and envisage 2030 as the deadline for completion.
All these projects are welcome, but they will not improve the road link between Bucharest and Sofia. The future motorway in northern Bulgaria will stop at Veliko Tarnovo, which is still 200 km from Sofia. I would therefore point out that the enormous potential of bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Romania has yet to be realized, as does the potential of a continuous motorway corridor linking Bucharest, Sofia, and Athens, and further on, these three capitals of the European Union with Skopje and Tirana, thus forming a unified Balkan space.
[1] https://www.rri.ro/turist-roman-in-lume/din-nou-despre-turistii-romani-in-bulgaria-id875320.html
[2] https://termene.ro/articole/romanii-lasa-peste-jumatate-de-miliard-de-euro-in-bulgaria-in-timpul-vacantelor#:~:text=Business%20News-,Rom%C3%A2nii%20las%C4%83%20peste%20jum%C4%83tate%20de%20miliard%20de%20euro%20%C3%AEn%20Bulgaria,au%20cheltuit%20pe%20litoralul%20rom%C3%A2nesc&text=Bulgaria%20a%20avut%20mai%20mul%C8%9Bi,Bulgaria%20%C3%AEn%20perioada%20mai%2Dseptembrie
[5] https://romania.europalibera.org/a/premierul-si-seful-de-la-transporturi-se-spala-pe-maini-in-privinta-bacului-care-ar-trebui-sa-relaxeze-aglomeratie-de-pe-podul-giurgiu-ruse/33078553.html
[6] https://www.byjulia.ro/podul-giurgiu-ruse-2-ani-reparatii-pe-partea-bulgara/#:~:text=Actualizare%2007%20iulie%3A%20%E2%80%9ERepara%C8%9Biile%20la,Bulgariei%20din%20Bucure%C8%99ti%2C%20Ivaylo%20Marinov.
[7] https://friendshipbridge.eu/2024/08/15/north-bulgaria-the-poor-relative-en/
[8] Idem 7.
[9] https://www.eureporter.co/world/greece/2023/10/12/romania-greece-and-bulgaria-want-to-build-a-highway-and-rail-transport-corridor-connecting-the-three-countries/
[11] API: Construction of the Black Sea Motorway to begin in late 2026 – Investor.bg
[12] The Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo motorway must be completed by 2029 – Around the world and in Bulgaria – BNT News
Photo: The Danube Bridge at Ruse before the start of the rennovation of its Bulgarian segment (source: Agency Road Infrastructure)
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