Aug. 29 (EIRNS)-- The European Union's "Bureaucratic Meanders" are blocking the implementation of the Danube -Aegean canal and Chinese backed infrastructure projects according to an article in today's Le Figaro. Entitle CHINA URGES TO CONNECT DANUBE TO EASTERN SEA the article is the second in two days on the canal project, written by its Greek correspondent Alexia Kafalas  writes that after European ports such as Athens and railways, China is now interested in European waterways.

            Le Figaro wroted that the Greco-Serbian canal proposal was presentd in Beijing this summer, within the framework of the great Chinese design of the "new silk roads" initiated by President Xi Jinping.
            The article adds that the project woulds cost 17 billion dollars and take ten years to build and require make the Morava river navigable for large riverships over 346 kilometers and the Axios over 275 kilometers, as well as a canal to connect the two rivers. The project  would include the construction and operation of hydroelectric generating stations along its entire length. It will have to take into account the question of the irrigation of agricultural lands crossed.
            The article mentions the fact that the China Gezhouba Group Corporation has done a feasibility study whether it offers China a new and faster way to transport its products to the heart of the Old Continent.
            Although the article claims China has shown a little reticence over the project the real problem lies with the fact that the European Union's bureaucratic meandering over approving such projects, pointing to the case of the high speed rail project between Budapest,  Hungary, an EU member state and Serbia which is not in the EU, has been stalled by the EU despite the fact that both Serbia and Hungary desperately want the project.

            The article concludes: "The European Commission does not welcome Chinese investments in the Balkans, which are often seen as an easy entry point as the region needs capital and infrastructure. This is likely to delay the project of the Balkan channel linking the Danube to the Aegean Sea..." [dea]