Bridges Are Built Not Only with Steel, Concrete, and Asphalt, but with Trust, Vision, and Economic Freedom Ten years of the Three Seas Initiative and the timeless common sense – a view from Romania
In the age of “infrastructure diplomacy”—and we may place under such label the Three Seas Initiative (3SI)—, it is tempting to think that connectivity is just a matter of tracks, pipelines, and wires. But the true lifeblood of regional cooperation does not flow through stone, steel or silicon—it pulses through institutions, as, inter alia, last year’s laureates of the the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel—Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson—convincingly demonstrated. “Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better” —this is how the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences justified the award. It is common sense, before anything else, yet “command and control” does persist in governments’ fantasies. In the “Trimarium”—as 3SI is sometimes nicknamed, a reminder of Józef Piłsudski’s interwar geopolitical plan, Intermarium/Międzymorze—, where strategic geography meets political ambition, economic freedom emerges as “the” indispensable condition for durable connectivity.
Foundations Before Frameworks: Why Institutional Infrastructure Matters
Defined by the Heritage Foundation and by the Fraser and Cato Institutes not merely as market liberalism, but as a composite of legal integrity, regulatory quality, and openness to enterprise, economic freedom underwrites every successful infrastructure endeavour. Short of it, grand corridors are sunk costs, and integration is aspirational rhetoric. Romania and its regional peers face well-documented challenges in this regard: the EU Justice Scoreboard (2023) shows sluggish judicial proceedings, with average resolution times exceeding 400 days in several 3SI members—including Romania; the Corruption Perceptions Index (2023) echoes the unease, with Romania scoring 46/100, trailing the EU average by nearly 20 points; even the routine act of opening a business—a test of bureaucratic sincerity—takes 37 days in Poland, while Estonia completes the task in a brisk four (World Bank, 2020). These hurdles are not trivial; they are structural frictions that erode trust and inflate transaction costs. EU-wide or scaled at 3SI level, true “open strategic autonomy” arises from institutionally fostering credible interdependencies.
Tracking Freedom: Economic Liberty in the 3SI Rankings
In gauging the pulse of economic liberty across the 3SI space, one finds a mixed prognosis. The liberalising trajectories are real, yet uneven—and often fragile under pressure. Estonia leads the way, ranking 7th globally in the Heritage Index (2024) with a score of 80.5, while Romania sits at 47th with 68.6, and Bulgaria further behind at 71st. The Fraser Institute’s 2023 assessment aligns with these trends: Lithuania and Estonia score consistently above 8/10, affirming the strength of their legal frameworks and market dynamism. Romania’s own evolution, from 6.3 in 2000 to 7.5 in 2020, is neither negligible nor complete. The country remains hampered by regulatory ambiguities and institutional sluggishness, particularly in judicial independence—an area where form often outruns substance. This disparity between the Baltic vanguard and Balkan laggards reveals a convergence challenge at the heart of the 3SI. It is not only the “hardware of integration”—roads&rails, pipelines&grids—that demands investment. It is the “software of governance”, the operating system of law and liberty, that needs to be harmonised.
Bridges and Barriers: Economic Freedom Among 3SI Countries
Bridges, it is said, are easier to envision than to engineer. Within the 3SI, the vision is clear: a region woven together by mutual opportunity, shared infrastructure, and aligned principles. Yet the engineering—based on predictability as the dividend of economic freedom properly anchored—lags behind. On paper, EU membership provides a common platform. The Single Market ensures mobility of goods and capital, while financial resources such as those (to be) secured via the 3SI Investment Fund and the 3SI Innovation Fund aim to lubricate these interconnections. But friction remains. For instance, OECD (2023) data reveal enduring FDI restrictiveness in Hungary and Croatia. Tax regimes diverge, with corporate tax rates stretching from Hungary’s 9% to Romania and Poland’s 19%. Licensing regimes for energy infrastructure vary wildly, often adding up to two years of administrative drag. These disparities deter investors and confuse partners. Countries acting as strategic partners—U.S., Germany, Japan, Spain, Türkiye—expect regulatory coherence in a space that is valuable precisely “as a whole”.
Romania’s Role: A Regional Hub in the Making
Few countries in the 3SI region are as structurally poised for leadership as Romania, yet Poland is the uncrowned queen of the conclave. Romania’s geographic endowments are considerable. With its Black Sea coastline. Carpathian vertebration (yet infrastructurally hard to tame) and Danube artery, the country sits at a crossroads. It is the largest natural gas producer in Eastern Europe after Norway. It ranks 6th globally in broadband speed (Ookla, 2024). It is vital in strategic corridors like Rail2Sea, Via Carpathia and BRUA pipeline. Its reforms, too, are real: liberalisation of energy markets, investments in digital infrastructure, engagement with EU-led cross-border initiatives (Schengen area). And yet, there remains a yawning gap between ambition and implementation. The CVM mechanism may have formally lifted in 2023, but Romania’s judicial landscape looks iffy. Public procurement is notoriously opaque, ranking 24th of 27 EU states (EC, 2023). The machinery of the state too often grinds slowly. Too little for 3SI Romania—a desirous node of economic exchange and sentinel of geopolitical stability.
Future-Forward: Romania’s Strategic Potential in the 3SI
Strategic positioning is not destiny. It is, at best, an opportunity—and one easily squandered. For Romania to elevate from participant to protagonist in the 3SI project, it must pursue reforms that are not only deep, but deliberate. Firstly, institutional credibility must be reinforced. The independence of courts, the efficiency of bureaucracy, the predictability of regulation—these are not “soft” prerequisites. They are hard infrastructures by another name. Secondly, digital transformation must extend beyond urban islands, fibre thread the hinterlands, and standards interoperate across borders. This is beyond speed or access; it is basis for regional resilience. Thirdly, Romania should lead—not just follow—in shaping 3SI governance norms. A shared regulatory platform in energy, transport, and digital coordination would send a signal: the region is not only integrated by projects, but by principles. Romania could be more than a hinge between East and West, North and South, but a hub of both prosperity and security—where, among others, freedom of enterprise is not just to be preached at summits but practiced at scale.
References
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