EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos attended the inauguration of a new section of the Halkali–Kapikule railway in Edirne on Friday, a project backed by €275 million in EU grant funding.
The newly opened Çerkezköy–Kapıkule stretch is part of a rail link between Istanbul and the border with Bulgaria, the European Commission announced.
The Commission said the funding came through the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA II) — a programme that provides financial support to countries preparing to join the bloc.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also attended the inauguration.
Kos met with Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, before the event.
EU-backed rail link forms part of wider connectivity plan
The Commission described the Halkali–Kapikule railway as the largest infrastructure project to date in EU–Turkey cooperation.
It said the project is a first deliverable under the EU’s cross-regional Connectivity Agenda, which the Commission described as a framework to strengthen transport, energy and digital links between the EU and Central Asia via the South Caucasus and the Black Sea region.
Kos attended the International Conference on Corridor VIII in Sofia on the same day, where she took part in a panel discussion chaired by Bulgaria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova.
