Danube has a very large mirrored S-shape, spanning across approximately , starting at Novo Selo and ending in Lom. The bridge is located near the middle of this reversed S. At most part of the Danube river, the Bulgarian bank lies slightly higher above water than the Romanian river bank. However, the city of Vidin is lying lower and is protected by dikes, while the bank on the Calafat side is high above Danube river. Controversy about the location Starting from 1993, there was a long and bitter dispute between Romania and Bulgaria about the location of the second Danube bridge. Bulgaria wanted to revive the isolated city of Vidin, as well as to have the bridge on the shortest possible route to Central and Western Europe and argued for putting the bridge as far west as possible, between Vidin and Calafat. A research under the European PHARE programme found that the most profitable place for the bridge would have been between Lom and Rast, but neither countries agreed with this. Romania wanted transiting trucks to stay in their country as long as possible by placing the bridge further east, between Turnu Măgurele and Nikopol. In 1998, Greece offered to invest in the bridge, since they wanted a road linking Thessaloniki to the rest of Europe through Romania, as Greece was also cut off from Europe by the war in Kosovo and the boycott against Yugoslavia. The final agreement was that the second Danube bridge was to be built between Vidin and Calafat, but Romania refused to invest in other than the adjacent infrastructure on their territory. Financing sources In 1999, a stability pact for South East Europe was signed by banks and national governments, aiming to bring investments to countries like Bulgaria and Romania. Chairman of this stability pact was Bodo Hombach, who had set up a great lobby in favor of the new bridge between Vidin and Calafat. The cost of building the bridge, without the adjoining infrastructures was estimated in 2000 to be €99 million. Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov wanted to give the project a credit loan of US$180 million. Thanks to the lobby of Bodo Hombach, the European Investment Bank granted the project a credit loan of €50 million in December 2000. In January 2001, the cost for the bridge construction and the adjacent roads toward the bridge was estimated at US$200 million. In 2004,