Greek, Bulgarian prime ministers agree to speed up collaboration in energy and transport

Greece and Bulgaria agreed to boost and speed up their collaboration in interconnectivity – particularly in energy and transport – on the basis of the Vertical South-North Corridor for natural gas, during a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov in Athens on Thursday.

They also discussed collaboration in renewable energy sources. The meeting was followed by a working lunch, with Greek and Bulgarian delegations participating.

During the lunch, the two leaders reviewed bilateral relations and the progress of collaboration in a series of sectors of joint interest, particularly the Greek-Bulgarian connectivity of road and rail networks. It should be noted that issues of joint interest had been also discussed at high level in October 2023, during the Trilateral Summit of Greece-Bulgaria- Romania and the signing of a joint declaration by the leaders of all three countries.

Before the start of their meeting, Mitsotakis congratulated his Bulgarian counterpart for his country’s inclusion in the Schengen Area, and underlined that he looks forward to Schengen’s full application, “including the land borders, which are naturally so important for our bilateral relations and trade.”

On his side, the Bulgarian prime minister praised the “excellent strategic relations in several sectors – transport, energy, defense, and defense industry” between the two countries, and spoke of the necessity of speeding up some of the projects in the coming months.

Attending the working lunch included on the Greek side the ministers of national economy & finance, foreign affairs, infrastructure & transport, environment & energy, and members of the prime minister’s office