24:ORE Cotidianul 24:ORE Iasi
Membrii Asociaţiei “Moldova vrea autostradă”, care militează pentru construcţia autostrăzii Iaşi – Târgu Mureş, au trimis luni, 10 februarie, o scrisoare deschisă Parlamentului European (PE), în care atrag atenţia pe de o parte asupra nevoilor Regiunii de Nord-Est si, pe de altă parte, pentru impulsionarea europarlamentarilor români, pentru o abordare “cu forță și eficacitate” a negocierilor din cadrul Comisiei Europene şi a PE privind arhitectura finanțărilor acordate în exerciţiul financiar 2021- 2020 al Uniunii Europene (UE) pentru infrastructura statelor membre. Scrisoarea deschisă de Asociaţia ”Moldova vrea autostrada”, cu titlul ”Finanțarea autostrăzilor – prioritate pentru cetățenii României în următorul buget european (2021-2027)”, a fost trimisă către Adina Vălean, comisar pentru mobilitate și transport, Elisa Ferreira, comisar pentru coeziune și reforme, Karima Delli, președintele Comitetului TRAN din Parlamentul European, membrilor Comitetului TRAN din Parlamentul European, membrilor Parlamentului European și tuturor europarlamentarii români. “În această scrisoare am evidențiat lipsa elementelor de infrastructură rutieră moderne în Regiunea de Nord-Est, impactul negativ asupra dezvoltării economice și vieții locuitorilor, necesitatea identificării și asigurării de surse de finanțare pentru infrastuctura rutieră și în perioada programatică 2021-2027, astfel încât UE să asigure dezvoltarea coezivă a regiunilor sale, precum și posibile abordări inovative ale infrastructurii de transport din Moldova”, se arată în document. (E.M.)
Conținutul scrisorii deschise (în limba engleză)
OPEN LETTER –
Funding of Motorways – Top Priority For Citizens Of Romania During The Next
European Budget (2021-2027)
Addressed to:
Adina VĂLEAN, Commissioner for Mobility and Transport,
Elisa FERREIRA, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms
Karima DELLI, Chair of the TRAN Committee in the European Parliament,
Members of the TRAN Committee in the European Parliament,
Members of the European Parliament,
This open letter stands as a reaction of the civil society in
Romania to recent news that the European Commission is considering a
substantial reduction of the budget for road infrastructure investments in
Romania in the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.
“Moldova Vrea Autostradă” Association has had multiple contacts with officials
of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament in 2018 and
2019, in an effort to underline the critical importance of the Tg.
Mureș-Iași-Ungheni (A8) Motorway project for the North-Eastern region of
Romania (Moldavia).
The A8 Motorway project (also known as the Union Motorway in Romania) is part
of the TEN-T Core European corridor and connects Moldavia and the Republic of
Moldova to Central Europe, via Transylvania and Hungary.
The economic importance of such a project cannot be stressed enough. The
estimated results of the project come with a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 1.74
and facilitate the daily transit of approximately 31,000 vehicles (Annual
Average Daily Traffic).
The Eastern region of the Carpathian Mountains has the lowest workforce cost
and a prestigious university center at Iași (over 20 000 yearly graduates in
engineering, medicine, economics and humanities).
A motorway that will connect Moldavia to the West can be the spark that will
start the economic growth of this region and that will be beneficial for
Transylvania, Hungary and the Republic of Moldova, but also serve the European
Union’s larger goals of economic integration and economic growth. The motorway
will facilitate the circulation of goods, services and people and has the
potential to shrink the economical gap, reduce emigration and strategically
strengthen the Eastern border of the European Union.
Besides economic and geopolitical arguments, we must highlight
the severe cost of hundreds of human lives that are lost unnecessarily on the
Romanian roads that are currently used to transit from Moldavia to
Transylvania. A modern infrastructure such as a motorway could also ease the
environmental impact of human activity, by saving fuel compared to existing
roads and facilitating the transition to electric-powered, ecological mobility.
In the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework Romania benefited from a total
allocation of 2,02 billion euros for motorway infrastructure investments in the
European TEN-T Core Network: 1.52 billion euros came from the European Cohesion
Fund and 0.5 billion euros from the European Regional Development Fund. This
represents 6,6% of the total sum of 31 billion euros allocated to Romania from
the European budget.
So far this money was used for building motorways only in the Western regions
of Romania and was sufficient for the partially funding the completion of only
58,4 km of motorways in 2018 and 43,2 km in 2019. The lack of high-level
technical expertise in motorway construction, poor decision making among
national government officials and partly political instability (Romania had 12
different Transport ministers from 2014 to date) are the main causes of slow
progress in this domain. We do not want to add insufficient funding to an
already long list of factors that are dramatically impacting the quality of life
of citizens in our region.
The news that the European Commission is considering to reduce the budget for
transport infrastructure in Romania to a total of 4 billion euros (out of which
only a small part would be allocated to motorway construction) and to
increase the level of national co-funding from 15% (for 2014-2020) to 60% is
extremely negative for Romanian citizens, especially for those living in the
North-Eastern Romania. It would represent a serious blocking factor for the
economic development of our region and would turn this new decade (2020-2029)
into another “lost decade” for modernizing vital infrastructure in Moldavia.
We understand the need to focus more European funds towards digital innovation
and protecting the environment and we support it. However, in order to preserve
the European values of ensuring equality and equitable development, we believe
the Union must make the necessary investments to support countries like Romania
to continue building the basic infrastructure like motorways, as was the case
for member countries that joined much earlier (Spain, Portugal, Greece etc).
Our suggestion is to better adapt motorway construction projects by
implementing the latest technological improvements that can facilitate a more
ecological mobility. This would include using waste materials for embanking,
developing electric power infrastructure (charging stations) for charging
electric vehicles along the motorway, aerial or wireless charging lanes for
freight trucks/personal vehicles and multi-modal transfer stations.
Another proposal from our Association is to run a pilot project in the
2021-2027 MFF for funding large TEN-T core infrastructure projects in the most
under-developed regions in the EU directly, under the management of a special
unit in the European Commission.
Our Association is ready to support these efforts with local and regional
expertise, specialized know-how and willingness to act as a link between the
European institutions, the national public administration and the local
communities which would directly benefit or be impacted by this investment.
Conclusions
To conclude, we would like to ask you to reconsider the financing plan and all
its implications for the wellbeing of the 3.3 million European citizens in the
area affected by the TOTAL lack of motorways, hence severe underdevelopment.
We are ready to provide you with an independent, detailed
assessment of the current infrastructure needs in Moldavia, the status of
existing projects and technical solutions vetted by local infrastructure
experts.
About Moldova Vrea Autostradă
Moldova Vrea Autostradă (Moldova Wants A Motorway) is a non-profit,
non-governmental organization founded in 2013 in Iași, Romania by a group of
concerned citizens and experts in construction, geography and economics. The
main purpose of the Association is to support the development of modern
transportation infrastructure in the region of Moldavia, as an essential
prerequisite of economic and social progress.
