Six MEPs support the Institute for Development and Expertise of the Project’s proposal to extend the initiative #DiscoverEU for the Iasi-Chisinau-Odessa railway route, called UA-RM#DiscoverEU. In a press release, IDEP said that by the extension of #DiscoverEU proposed to the European Commission, 10,000 young people aged 18 from Odessa region, Iasi County and the Republic of Moldova can receive EU-subsidized travel permits on this railway section, IPN reports.
IDEP is one of the promoters of the Iasi - Chisinau – Odessa regular railway route, #DiscoverEU, which was launched in the EU in 2018. The initiative offered about 70,000 young people from the European Union the possibility of travelling and discovering culture and history within EU countries, taking advantage of the freedom of movement throughout the EU. Given the success of the #DiscoverEU initiative, it was decided to earmark in 2022 the budget needed for 60,000 young people from the EU.
“We strongly believe that if 10,000 young people from the region travel by train thanks to traveling permits through the UA-RM # DiscoverEU program, becoming #DiscoverEU Ambassadors, they will contribute to the popularization of the regular railway route Iasi-Chisinau-Odessa, contributing to better cohesion, connectivity, green transport and a multi-faceted collaboration framework to be replicated in the future,” said IDEP.
The promoters of the initiative to launch a new Iasi - Chisinau regular railway route – Moldova’s Railways, IDEP and the Employers Association of the Tourism Industry of Moldova – staged broad consultations with the aim of bringing together the main private and public stakeholders for these to cooperate and create a favorable climate for the relaunch of tourism, primarily regional one, by capitalizing on the Iasi - Chisinau – Odessa regular railway route that will become available on December 12, 2021.
Together with the launch of the Iasi - Chisinau regular railway route, tour operators can use this section to invite potential tourists to take part in City Breaks by train.
According to IDEP, the six MEPs are Gheorghe Falcă, Maria Grapini, Mircea-Gheorghe Hava, Alin Mituța, Juozas Olekas and Ivan Stefanec.
