On 15.09.2026, a meeting was held at the Council of Ministers where a new model for transport infrastructure development was announced. Representatives of financing institutions, industry organizations of builders, engineers, and designers gathered to discuss the government's strategies. Prime Minister Rumen Radev emphasized that to achieve the ambitious goals of building safe and modern roads, it is critical to change the very model of constructing strategic infrastructure. According to him, without this change, tasks cannot be completed quickly, with high quality, and without corruption or budget overruns.
The Cabinet's goal is to establish greater transparency and predictability in the road development process through active dialogue with business and society. The foundation of this new approach is an in-depth analysis prepared by the Ministry of Transport and Communications together with the "Road Infrastructure" Agency, the Ministry of Environment and Water, and other relevant institutions. "Once you have familiarized yourselves with it and discussed it within your organizations, we should meet again to decide what we will prioritize building and how," Rumen Radev urged.
A key focus during the meeting was the elimination of speculation regarding concessions on highway roads. The Prime Minister was categorical: "I want to state very clearly—where construction has been carried out with public funds, where every Bulgarian has already paid through the public budget, we are not talking about concessions at all." He pointed to specific examples of facilities that remain in public ownership—the "Trakia," "Maritsa," "Hemus," and "Struma" highways, as well as the expressway from Vidin to Botevgrad. The possibility of concessions will only be considered for projects that are key to the country's connectivity but for which the state lacks sufficient resources; meanwhile, the state will maintain bypass roads to ensure a choice of routes for every passenger.
To avoid the mistakes of the past, the government is striving for complete integrity in its processes. "I will not look back at the sacks of money from the Hemus motorway and many other cases of compromised public procurement," Radev stated, noting at the same time that, unfortunately, "concession" has become a dirty word for Bulgarian society. The application of new public-private partnership and concession models is aimed at accelerating the pace of development. If relying solely on the national budget, the completion of all identified projects would take at least 50 years, whereas the new models will free up public resources for critical sectors such as healthcare, education, culture, sports, security, and others.
For Bulgaria's development, it is vital to ensure the project readiness of its road arteries. Work is currently underway to optimize the legislative framework to allow for faster design stages and a quicker transition to tendering. "Resources will be available, but we want results—fast, high-quality design so that we can begin the parallel tendering of all important transport facilities," the Prime Minister emphasized. Regarding the participants in the process, he added: "Absolutely everyone will be invited—both our domestic construction firms and organizations, and foreign ones. We will seek the best solution, the fastest and the highest quality."
The new road infrastructure development model will determine the pace of building new road connections and strategic objects across the country, including the region.
The details of the new approach were presented by the Minister of Transport and Communications, Georgi Peev. The event, held at 15:09, was also attended by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Ivan Shishkov, and the Minister of Environment and Water, Rositsa Karamfilova.