Change of the subscription fee for Bulgarian automobiles, which pass through the Danube bridge

An information was received by Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry regarding changes from the beginning of 2018 in the way Bulgarian cars cross the Danube bridge or the so called "subscription" for business representatives. Up until now they paid for 30 crossings, RON 1.20 per trip, which was the same as Romanian representatives.

Since the beginning of this year, the "subscription" price has been raised to RON 11 for one crossing of the Danube bridge  – only for the vehicles with Bulgarian registration - and the maximum number of trips within the "subscription plan" has been lowered to 20. The price remains unchainged for vehicles with Romanian registration.

As an organization-representative of businesses with interest in both sides of the border, we immediately contected H.E. Todor Churov – ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria in Romania with an official request to take this issue to the institutions in Romania, which are relevant to this problem, and to discuss it with them until the case is resolved.

In their response, the Embassy informed us, that an immediate meeting was held between the Head of the Office for Trade and Economic Affairs - Mr. Ivaylo Marinov and the Head of the Consular Service - Mr. Mircho Ivanov with representatives of the Romanian National Company for Road Infrastructure Management (CNAIR), which explained that by an order of the Romanian Minister of Transport, measures were taken to facilitate the Romanian business representatives, which live in Romania and work in Bulgaria, as well as to have an equality of the fees, collected on the bridges in Romania. The idea is to completely remove the fees for crossing the bridge for Romanian citizens, which work in Bulgaria and live in Romania. At the same time it was stated that there is no reciprocity regarding the bridge crossing fees, since the Bulgarian side doesn't offer an opportunity to pay for a subscription, regardless of the fact that the fee from our side of the bridge is lower.

At the end of the meeting, the participants made a commitment to inform the competent Bulgarian and Romanian institutions about the questions send by the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with the purpose of having this issue discussed and solved at an expert level.