Bulgaria Secures EU Funding for First Southeast European Hydrogen Pipeline
Bulgartransgaz secured EUR 4.56M in EU funding for a 250km hydrogen pipeline to Greece -- the first dedicated hydrogen infrastructure in Southeast Europe and a template for regional cross-border certification.
Bulgaria's state-owned gas operator Bulgartransgaz secured EUR 4.56 million in EU funding for a 250-kilometre hydrogen pipeline route from Sofia to the Greek border at Kulata. It is the first dedicated hydrogen infrastructure project in Southeast Europe.
Why Southeast Europe Matters
Western Europe — Germany, Netherlands, France — is crowded with established certification ecosystems and competitive positioning for RFNBO compliance. Southeast Europe is practically empty.
Bulgaria and Greece are both EU members with renewable energy potential (Greece has substantial solar resources). But they lack the hydrogen certification infrastructure that Western Europe is rapidly building. That gap represents a timing advantage for early entrants.
What the Pipeline Signals
A 250km cross-border pipeline does not get funded on speculation. The project assumes hydrogen production at scale, and production at scale requires cross-border RFNBO compliance documentation.
Bulgaria produces; Greece consumes. Every batch crossing the border needs certification documentation for EU market access. That documentation problem is unsolved in the region.
Regional Expansion
If Bulgaria-Greece succeeds, it becomes a template. The EU invested EUR 650 million in cross-border hydrogen and electricity projects in January 2026 alone. The broader European Hydrogen Backbone aims to create a pan-European transport system by repurposing existing gas infrastructure.
Other Southeast European countries will follow. Each new cross-border corridor creates similar certification challenges: regulatory alignment between different energy ministries, export documentation that travels with the hydrogen, and RFNBO compliance frameworks covering both producer and consumer jurisdictions.
The first companies to build certification infrastructure for Southeast Europe's hydrogen market get embedded before market consolidation.
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