Bulgarian Parliament ratified the amendments to the contract with European Investment Bank on the funding of Danube Bridge 2, linking Vidin in Bulgaria to Calafat in Romania, Stroitestvo Gradut weekly said on March 17 2010..

The change would allow to retain the bank's funding past the current deadline. The new deadline is March 15 2011. 

In exchange, Bulgaria agreed to shorten the loan's maturity to 14 and a half years instead of the initially-agreed 17 years, which means the payments themselves will be larger.

Danube Bridge 2 would become the second bridge across the Danube River between the two countries, the only one being now between Rousse and Giurgiu. EIB loaned Bulgaria 50 million euro, but only five million have been appropriated to date.

In February, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and his Romanian counterpart Emil Boc visited the construction site to assess progress. At the time, the two heads of government said that they would ask the European Commission to extend the deadline for appropriating European Union funds allocated to the project.

The project, which was approved by Bulgarian and Romania as far back as 2000, has been obstructed by delays in several areas. It was initially projected to be completed by end-2010 and cost 226 million euro.

In October 2009, it was reported that construction delays added up to no less than seven months, while the cost of construction was expected to increase by an additional 20 to 30 per cent.