Von der Leyen visits Bulgaria to mourn multi-vehicle collision victims

On November 10, 2026, European Commission President Von der Leyen and Bulgarian Prime Minister Radev issued a joint statement in Varna, Bulgaria, expressing deep condolences to the victims, the injured and their families of a multi-vehicle collision. Earlier reports did not disclose the specific time, location, casualty figures or cause of the accident, and public developments were limited to the condolence expressions in the above joint statement. Follow-up reports said Von der Leyen visited Romania and Bulgaria from November 9 to 10, during which she announced an additional 10 million euros for the two countries' search and rescue teams and accelerated the construction of a Black Sea maritime security center, providing 50 million euros in dedicated funding for it; she put forward five points, including restoring freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, strengthening maritime surveillance with the help of Copernicus satellite imagery, countering information manipulation, and supporting the two countries' defense capability building through the SAFE mechanism; Bulgaria will receive 3.3 billion euros and Romania more than 16 billion euros.