EMEA News
EU to Study Freight Connection Between Aegean, Black Seas
The European Union (EU) has announced a €750,000 ($999,000) grant to study the possibility of building a freight corridor between the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Danube river, allowing shippers to bypass Turkey's Bosphorus Strait.
The "Sea2Sea" corridor concept would involve rail connections between various maritime and river ports in northeastern Greece and Bulgaria.
The study, funded under the EU's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Executive Agency's 2011 annual call, is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014.
The project will study various scenarios for the corridor, possible funding and governance mechanisms, and ways to involve stakeholders and the public.
Heavy traffic in the Bosphorus Strait has also caused Turkey and Russia to look at a possible Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline, with negotiations between the countries underway as of last month, according to the Russian news site RBTH.
