Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă’s visit to Arad county, together with the Minister of Internal Affairs Lucian Bode

Statements by Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă on the occasion of participation in the signing of the contract for Arad south beltway technical design and execution

[Check against delivery]

Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă: Good afternoon. I am very glad to attend this event, a very important event for the citizens of Arad municipality, citizens of Arad county, and all those who can use this particularly important infrastructure for the completion of the Arad municipality ring road, whereby we interconnect with the highway A1 Nadlac -Sibiu and with DN 7 Nadlac -Arad -Hunedoara. It is a project that started six years ago, an investment of nearly 60 million euros, and is part of the Government's objectives to develop the entire road infrastructure in our country. We need all these developments to fulfill the objective of the program for the government, whereby we can make this interconnection to the Trans-European transport networks. We need to achieve all these objectives within the assumed deadlines. On the one hand, we have the European funds, and the cohesion funds are 9. 7 billion euros which need to be used in the future financial framework, and on the other hand, there are the funds that are in the PNRR, and the completed part is included in the PNRR, that highway section between Lugoj and Deva, which should be completed at the deadline undertaken through PNRR. As such, it is not just about the large number of infrastructure goals we have undertaken, but also the time frame by which they must be completed. On the one hand. On the other hand, we also have a history of these delays in accepting the works, and I think it is time that both at the local level and at the government level, we consider meeting these deadlines. It is an expectation that the citizens have, that we have all promised each time, and I believe that we cannot delay these works much longer.

Of course, there were a whole series of arguments and justifications. The legal framework is created, the necessary funds are secured, there is political will, then all we have to do is get to work and achieve these goals. Practically, through this approach, we can see for ourselves that the traffic has been streamlined, and in the border area, we know very well the congestions that are created during certain periods of the year. We are discussing traffic safety, which is very important, taking into account the number of accidents that occur on Romanian roads. And, of course, we can also take into account the reduction in the level of pollution, by shortening the time of traffic jams. We, therefore, have every reason to continue supporting these projects at the government level. The local authorities also have the duty to fulfil these obligations assumed before the citizens, when they asked for the vote in order to be able to answer for the fulfillment of the objectives that we promoted in the electoral campaign.

I am convinced that, as of today we were able to find out what the problems are, both at the level of the County Council and at the level of the City Hall, and we have done it before and we will continue to maintain this open dialogue because there are a whole series of problems that are emerging. There are certain issues that need to be rearranged and this can only be done if we tackle them in the practice of implementing these objectives. At the government level, there is this availability, there is the necessary expertise, and all that remains is to go and do things for the citizens. I congratulate all those who got involved in this project. There are six months of design, enforcement will start in the spring of next year. I hope you will call us at the timely inauguration, otherwise, we don't come. I wish you good luck and let's see as many such goals as possible assumed and achieved! Thank you.