Europe wasn’t built in a day but even so, at least twenty years is a long time to wait for the first north-south road in the East.
Via Carpathia – from the Baltic to the Aegean through seven countries – has so far failed to find favour with the European Commission.
‘Poland will be a massive building site from 2015-2020,’ said the delegate to the European Commission’s road charging conference in December.
The start of Poland’s second decade since joining the EU will be a push to complete a road network first sketched out in 1939.
One road not under construction however will be S19, an expressway cutting down the east of the country – through Bialystok, Lublin and Rzeszow – the Polish section of Via Carpathia.
(The latest plans suggest S19 might not even be dual carriageway if and when it is eventually built.)
Since 2006, seven eastern European nations have been jointly developing the 1,500 mile Via Carpathia, an almost direct north-south link between the Baltic and the Aegean.
The first leg, starting at the Lithuanian port Klaipeda, twists awkwardly past the Russian Federation annexe, but from then on it heads on unencumbered clipping both Slovakia (Kosice) and Hungary (Debrecen) before continuing down through Romania and Bulgaria to finish at Thessaloniki, on the shores of the Aegean.
The plans include two east-west off-shoots towards the Black Sea, in Bulgaria and Romania where it links with another ambitious project, the Black Sea Ring Highway.
Just before Christmas last year however an application to have Via Carpathia included on the Continent’s core transport network – and built by 2030 – was rejected by the European Parliament Transport Committee.
Despite enquiries, we are struggling to come up with a clear reason why, though a quote from a Commission official at a conference on the subject in October is perhaps a clue: ‘Member States and regions have to prove that they can reliably apply for and reliably spend the money acquired under the funds’. Besides this there are vague murmurs the road may be adopted in the 2030-50 plan.
The Commission has its own ideas, including major upgrades for the roads in the very south linking to Budapest. Between Timisoara and the Baltic however is a dead zone, through Europe’s poorest and most deprived region. Meanwhile there are no north-south roads planned in the east at all.
Europe wasn’t built in a day. But as the network matures in the west it increases the disparity with the east.
The seven countries involved could theoretically build Via Carpathia themselves. Bulgaria is well advanced with its east-west spur from Sofia to the Black Sea coast for example. But the lack of co-ordination on a such a big project would – at the very least – increase the costs for countries already at full stretch. Realistically it isn’t going to happen.
The last hope for Via Carpathia for the foreseeable future is to get the plan aired in a full European Parliament session. A previous attempt in February was cancelled but the backers tell us there could be an opportunity later this month.
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We invite you to support us a social action> Yes! for motorway Via Carpathia> which started in November 2014 on Facebook.
Now is 814 fans, 80% of fans is from Poland. the next 10% of the countries through which the route the Via Carpathia. Bulgaria, Romania ,Lithuania
They are among us people from Belarus and Western Ukraine, for which the construction of the route is an opportunity for the development of the economy.
The remaining 10% of the fans from all over Western Europe and USA &Canada
The largest group are fans of the Eastern Polish region where he has run the route Via Carpathia.
The action is intended to promote Via Carpathia motorway as a head key north-south route on the eastern borders of the EU.
Lobbying both in Polish government and the European Commission.
We will not wait for the implementation of the 2030 -2050. The road is needed now to cooperate in the CEE region.
We demand its implementation in full by 2021.
Our action is gathering speed. Soon will be aloud about us
Please. Write about us, Join us,
Team of social action > Yes for Via Carpathia>
Wow, that’s great. Good luck, will certainly lend any and all support
So long as you dont disturb wild Carpathia .
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