Over 30 years since the
anticommunist revolution and nearly 13 years since Romania joined the EU, not a
single motorway is crossing the Carpathians. At the end of 2019 Romania had
only 850 kilometers of motorway, of which 100 were built by dictator Nicolae
Ceasescu. A few motorway segments built at great cost are linking our country
to our neighbors, rather than allowing the people to get faster to Bucharest or
easing their trips to the seacoast. Some of the obstacles included politicians’
indifference, bureaucracy but also the selection of builders, who only seek
financial gain. According to statistics, Liberals and Social-Democrats have had
equal shares in governing the country after the 1989 revolution, either by
themselves or part of ruling coalitions. Neither side can however take any
credit in building motorways. Instead they blame each other, in repeated
arguments meant to boost their election scores. Since 2016, when it entered the
opposition, the National Liberal Party has harshly criticized the
Social-Democrats, accusing their incompetence. Last year the former left-wing
Government started negotiations to sign public-private partnerships for the
building of two motorways. In one case a conglomerate from China and Turkey had
been selected, while in the other case companies from the two states, with
major works in their home countries, although not in the European Union, had
made bids. After taking power last year, the Liberals have promised another
approach, a better one, they say. Accordingly, on Tuesday the Liberal
Government decided to cancel the public-private partnerships. Prime Minister
Ludovic Orban explained:
Our goal is simple: cancel all
ongoing procedures and transfer these projects to the relevant ministries. For instance
the Transport Ministry will take over all transport infrastructure projects,
whereas line ministries taking over other projects should present their implementation
plans within a week at the most, so we will know clearly each procedural step
we have to take, the planning of each stage in the project and the funds we
have to earmark for these projects.
The Social-Democrats are now
accusing the Liberals of backtracking the country by proposing feasibility studies
instead of kicking off construction works for the two motorways. The director
of the Pro Infrastructura Association, Ionut Ciurea, has recently estimated
that considering only 43 kilometers of motorway were built in 2019, Romania
could have another 57 kilometers of motorway this year.
(Translated by V. Palcu)