Public Relations and Protocol

The Civil Aviation Administration hosts a seminar on cybersecurity. The event is organized in the period 5-7 April 2022 together with EUROCONTROL under Support to States (STS) Policy.

Today, at a meeting between the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev and the Chief Executive Officer of Meridiam Thierry Déau, it was agreed that the Investment Plan for the first five years will increase from the initially planned 43 million euros to 72 million.

The initiative belongs entirely to Minister Nikolay Sabev, and the agreement was reached after a series of meetings between the two sides.

Meridiam Investment Fund is the owner of the concessionaire of Sofia Airport SOF Connect.

Twice as many train tickets have been purchased through the BDZ website since the beginning of the year. In March, more than 8,700 tickets were reserved and paid for through the website, and more than 24,000 visitors were recorded. In the first days of the mandate, the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev assigned BDZ - Passenger Transport EOOD, together with Information Services AD to improve the system for electronic ticketing.

Bulgaria will build a national infrastructure and supply, installation and personalization of a graphical user interface for Integrated Maritime Surveillance, allowing cross-border and transectoral exchange of information within Bulgaria and the European Union, based on the CISE data model.

The platform of a national CISE Node will be built under the project "Implementation of Integrated Bulgarian Maritime Surveillance (InBulMarS), based on a Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for monitoring the EU maritime territory - with the acronym InBulMarS 2 ”.

The number of registered electric cars in Bulgaria should reach nearly 30,000 by 2026. This is what the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Vladimir Varbanov stated in Ruse during a Round Table on energy efficiency in transport and prospects for the use of low-carbon energy in the Danube region. He pointed out that currently there are less than 10,000 registered electric cars.

We want to preserve and restore the building of Nova Zagora Railway Station. This is what the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev said within a public discussion upon his initiative on the project for modernization of the Station.

Today, the Minister of Transport invited experts from Germany to prepare a logistical plan for the development of multimodal transport in Bulgaria and the efficiency of the transport network in our country. That was announced during a meeting between the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev, Deputy Minister Vladimir Varbanov and a representative of the Executive Board of the Port of Duisburg Thomas Schlipköter.

In the current year we are opening a new border crossing at Zlatograd-Thermes. This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev after meeting today with the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Greece Konstantinos Karamanlis.

The Bulgarian side is committed to taking action to speed up the passage through the Makaza-Nymphea checkpoint by installing scales for trucks. The aim is to alleviate traffic at the Kulata-Promahon border checkpoint. Next year, a checkpoint near Rudozem and Xanthi will be opened, the Bulgarian Minister of Transport added.

The European Commission has approved the allocation of BGN 60 million in compensation to air carriers. The funds were provided from the State Budget and transferred to the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The financial assistance is intended as a measure to support air carriers to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Daniela Vezieva has been appointed a Member of the Board of Directors of Holding BDZ EAD.

She will take the position after recording it in the Commercial Register.

"The thorough focus of the economic model will be on the customer. The railways are the green future of European Bulgaria", Vezieva commented on her priorities.

War in Ukraine has proved that we are on the right track with the Government's Policy of opening more transport links with neighboring countries. This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev during the Annual Business Meeting with the Government, organized by Capital. According to him, there are already problems in the supply chains. Many insurers do not want to be responsible for ship charters for loading and unloading in the Black Sea basin. "We have been working very actively on alternative supply chains for several weeks now", Minister Sabev said.

No investments have been made in the railways in the last 30 years and the carrier has been deliberately bankrupt. This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev during a Round Table on "Restructuring of railway transport and implementation of the European program for reconstruction and development - a new perspective of the railways." He added that 45% of BDZ's rolling stock is out of operation and is not included in the company's repair program, while half of the applications were rejected due to inability to fulfill them.

In the current unstable geopolitical context, Bulgaria supports the development of the European Union's international communication connectivity through the construction of submarine cables. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Dilyan Berkovski during his participation in an informal council of ministers under the auspices of the French Presidency, format: "Transport, Telecommunications and Energy". Bulgaria is preparing projects for additional connections across the Black Sea with neighboring countries.

"We need advaced infrastructure and a single trade policy to make Bulgarian ports attractive," the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev said during the second discussion on the development of the Port of Varna and the region. "We have made it clear that we will protect the interests of the State, shipowners and shippers."

Bulgaria and Georgia have a common vision for the development of economic relations between the two countries, as it was pointed out during a meeting between the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia H.E. Tamuna Liluashvili.

The role of the Public Defender is very important for the Ministry of Transport and Communications, because the two institutions can work together to make citizens been heard and to have a strong civil society. This is what the Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Sabev stated at a meeting today with the Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva. The reason for the talks was the opinion of the Public Defender on the effectiveness of car eco-stickers.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications will assist as soon as possible in opening an air line between Sofia and Skopje in case of interest from an airline to operate the flights. This assurance was received by representatives of the airlines at a meeting today at the Ministry. From a legal point of view, there is no obstacle to the start of passenger transport by air, because there is an indefinite Memorandum for cooperation between the Aviation Administrations of the two countries, which was signed in 2015.

Plans for the development of water transport are based on smart, sustainable and comprehensive growth, at a fundamentally new level, meeting the new political, economic and social goals. This is what the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Vladimir Varbanov said at the ceremony marking the 141st Anniversary of the establishment of the Naval Academy "N. Y. Vaptsarov".

By order of the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Iliya Iliev, by the end of January BDZ-Passenger Transport should present an investment program to improve working conditions at railway depots. It is required to include clear and short-term actions.

Maritime Administration Executive Agency – Varna has received an alert for an accident with a death on board a motor ship Tsarevna. The information was submitted by the agent of the ship Sea Parthner Ltd at 23.35. The vessel flies the Maltese flag with an 18-member crew, including 17 Bulgarians and one Ukrainian.

The ship anchored for supply and change of crew at 23.05 on December 30 in Varna Bay.