Craiova Group

Craiova Group
Map of Europe indicating the member countries of the Craiova Group
Membership	Bulgaria Romania Serbia
Establishment	24 April 2015
Area
• Total	426,589 km2 (164,707 sq mi)
Population
• 2011 estimate	34,673,073
• Density	81.2/km2 (210.3/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	estimate
• Total	$0.9 trillion

The Craiova Group is a cooperation project of three European states – Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia – for the purposes of furthering their European integration as well as economic, transport and energy cooperation with one another. The Group originated in a summit meeting of the heads of governments, held on 24 April 2015 in the Romanian city of Craiova. At the group's inaugural meeting, Romania's then-Prime Minister Victor Ponta indicated that he was inspired by the Visegrád Group. Romania and Bulgaria both joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, while Serbia has been in accession negotiations since January 2014. Since October 2017 at the meeting in Varna, Bulgaria, with the inclusion of Greece, meetings have been quadrilateral.

One of the first initiatives, after a meeting in Vidin, Bulgaria, was to strengthen the telecommunication networks in the border areas of the countries. Other goals include helping Serbia join the European Union and the construction of a motorway linking Bucharest, Sofia and Belgrade.

See also

• Inner Six
• Central European Initiative
• NORDEFCO
• Visegrád Group
• Comecon
• Warsaw Pact
• Eurasian Economic Union
• Soviet Union
• Central European Defence Cooperation