Priority Project 7

 PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This motorway project will provide significant improvements to the road network of southeastern Europe by linking the main cities of the region. It will also connect the ports of Patras, Igoumenitsa, Athens (Piraeus), Thessaloniki and Constanta to the heart of the enlarged European Union. The initial plan for this axis involved the construction of two new motorways across Greece.

1. West to east following the route of the Via Egnatia, to connect the port of Igoumenitsa to Kipi on the Greek-Turkish border (680 km)
2. Modernisation of the existing 800 km Pathe road (Patras-Athina-Thessaloniki and Evzoni), which runs from southern Greece to the north, connecting Patras to Promahon on the Greek-Bulgarian border.

Extensions to this axis were adopted in 2004, adding connections from the north of Greece towards the neighbouring countries, and from there towards Central Europe.

The first branch of these extensions runs along the former pan-European corridor IV from the Greek-Bulgarian border at Promahon to Nadlac on the Romanian-Hungarian border, linking Thessaloniki to Sofia and to Budapest. The other branch runs from the Romanian-Hungarian border in the direction of the port of Constanta, via Bucharest.