The progress on the construction of the Struma highway was discussed at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention, the Ministry of the Environment has reported. The opinion of non-governmental organizations was also presented at the meeting. Moving traffic outside the gorge is of key importance, the organizations said. 

The Ministry of the Environment said that the eastern lane of the highway will take the traffic from the Kulata border crossing with Greece towards Sofia and is an important step in reducing the negative impacts on nature. The unfinished section of the Struma highway should be completed with two new lanes, while the road passing through the gorge should remain as a duplicate, the committee's position reads.