Three Seas Initiative
Three Seas Initiative
The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a political and economic platform that brings together 13 EU Member States located between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas: the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic of Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Hellenic Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, the Republic of Slovenia. The strategic partners of the Initiative are the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Commission and Japan. The 3SI associated participating states are Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
The main objective of the Initiative is to improve infrastructure connectivity along the North-South axis, focusing on the transport, energy and digital sectors. The 3SI has no secretariat and headquarters. It is chaired on a rotating basis by the member states. Its most important forum is the annual Summit held at the presidential level. A joint declaration is adopted after each summit.
Nine Summits have been held so far:
- 25 – 26 August 2016 in Dubrovnik, Croatia;
- 06 – 07 July 2017 in Warsaw, Poland;
- 17 – 18 September 2018 in Bucharest, Romania;
- 05 – 06 June 2019 in Ljubljana, Slovenia;
- 19 October 2020 in Tallinn, Estonia;
- 08 – 09 July 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria;
- 20 – 21 June 2022 in Riga, Latvia;
- 06 – 07 September 2023 in Bucharest, Romania;
- 11 April 2024 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The 2025 Summit will be hosted by Poland and the 2026 Summit by Croatia.
Since 2018, the Three Seas Business Forum is held in parallel with the annual Summits.
In 2018, a letter of intent was signed to establish the Three Seas Investment Fund (3SIIF) in order to accelerate investments in transport, energy and digital infrastructure projects. The constitutive act was signed in 2019 and the Fund became operational in February 2020. Amber Infrastructure Group was appointed as the exclusive Investment Adviser to the Fund.
According to the 2024 Status Report (https://3seas.eu/about/progressreport) the total number of projects within the 3SI reached 143, with 10% in the digital field, 39% in the energy field and 51% in the transport field.
The key parameters of the participation of the Republic of Bulgaria in the work of the 3SI are:
- Bulgaria has participated in the annual Summits since the very beginning of the Initiative. In July 2021 the sixth Summit was held in Sofia, hosted by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria - President Rumen Radev.
- On 2 September 2020, by a decision of the Council of Ministers, the participation of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) in the 3SIIF was approved with a contribution of €20 million. BDB joined the Fund in December 2020.
- Bulgarian institutions have proposed four projects for funding under the 3SI: restoration of the design parameters of Ruse-Varna railway line, construction of a tunnel under the Petrohan Pass, expansion of the capacity of Chiren UGS and construction of the "Black Sea" highway (Varna-Burgas).
- From 21 April 2022, the Minister of Innovation and Growth has been designated as the National Coordinator for the Three Seas Initiative.