Tomorrow, European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos will visit Edirne, Turkey, where she will take part in the opening of the Cerkezkoy–Kapikule section of the Halkali–Kapikule railway, an important transport link between Istanbul and the Bulgarian border. This was announced on the European Commission's website.
"This project, which received €275 million in EU grant financing under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II), is the first completed project under the EU's transregional Connectivity Agenda programme, which connects Central Asia with Europe via the South Caucasus. The new high-speed railway line will significantly improve transport links between Turkey and the European Union and will help reduce travel times along the Middle Corridor, which connects Europe through Turkey to the South Caucasus and Central Asia," the European Commission said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend the opening. The event marks another step in the development of transport links between the EU and Turkey. Before the ceremony, Kos will meet with Turkey's Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu.
"Developing transport connectivity remains one of the European Commission's priorities. The opening of the railway section will take place after Commissioner Kos's participation today in the International Conference on Corridor VII in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the conference, she took part in a discussion on the geopolitical context of Corridor VIII, moderated by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova. The Halkali–Kapikule railway is the largest infrastructure project to date under EU–Turkey cooperation. It has been allocated €275 million in EU grant financing under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II). The goal of the EU's transregional Connectivity Agenda programme is to strengthen transport, energy and digital links between the European Union and Central Asia through the South Caucasus and the Black Sea region by coordinating strategic investments and regulatory cooperation," the European Commission said.