Governance Approach to European Transport Policy

Transport is fundamental to every society and to every economy. That is why, in the European Union, many investments are focused on transport and infrastructure in order to generate jobs, to make work and travel easier for European citizens and to facilitate businesses. By cooperating and working together at different EU levels of decision (European, national, regional, local, transnational), these objectives of transport policy will be achieved more easy and the policy output will be a legitimate one. For a better understanding of a Governance Approach to European Transport Policy, my essay will focus on a particular case – Danube Bridge II. In March 2000 an agreement was signed between Romania and Bulgaria to build a new bridge over Danube due to the intense and constantly increasing traffic between the border regions of the two countries. The new bridge is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor IV and it will significantly shorten the distance between the Western and the South-Eastern Europe. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that different levels of decision were involved in building the second bridge over Danube and how did these levels cooperate.