On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Concelex and Atlantic Council Romania hosted the roundtable “Anchoring the Eastern Flank: Critical Infrastructure and Transatlantic Capital in Central and Eastern Europe”, which was addressed by the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan. The event looked at how strategic infrastructure on the Eastern Flank will be assessed and financed over the next decade of investment.
Participants examined how the lessons learned from Ukraine are redefining infrastructure requirements near NATO’s eastern border. The rapid restoration of a railway bridge, a transformer substation or a hospital depends critically on the immediate on-site availability of heavy equipment, compatible structural components and certified response teams, capabilities that cannot be mobilized within days in a crisis scenario.
“Ukraine has shown us that an asset is brought back into service by the capacity that exists before a crisis. Recovery depends on the equipment and crews already present in the territory, and full knowledge of how an asset works and how it fails stays with whoever built it. A state may hold every repair capability and still remain exposed if that knowledge sits under another jurisdiction. This makes the infrastructure industry a security capability, not just an economic one,” said Radu Pițurlea, CEO of Concelex and member of Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors.
Concelex put forward two proposals. The first is to add delivery capacity to the qualification criteria for strategic projects, alongside the existing financial and regulatory criteria. The second is to give priority to long-term, availability-based public-private partnerships along strategic corridors, where the region’s infrastructure companies are prepared to invest their own capital alongside transatlantic investors. So that both proposals can be verified, the company proposed a Strategic Infrastructure Index for NATO’s Eastern Flank, which would record who can build each asset, who can restore it, how quickly, and under which jurisdiction.
One of the event’s conclusions was that American investors see the Eastern Flank as one of the decade’s major investment opportunities, provided that projects come with clearly allocated risks and with local partners able to build and maintain them over the long term. In this context, the region’s infrastructure companies were approached as direct partners of transatlantic capital, and their delivery capacity as a criterion that should be measured and taken into account when strategic projects are assessed.
Alongside President Nicușor Dan, the event was attended by Minister of Finance Alexandru Nazare, Presidential Advisors Marius Lazurca (National Security and Foreign Policy) and Radu Burnete (Economic and Social Policy), and Romania’s Ambassador to the United States, Andrei Muraru. Also at the roundtable were the Washington-based ambassadors of several Central and Eastern European countries, diplomats with experience in the region, representatives of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), investment banks and global funds, and American and Romanian companies in energy, engineering and infrastructure.
The discussion was hosted by Frederick Kempe, Atlantic Council’s President and CEO, and moderated by Landon Derentz, the organization’s Vice President for Energy and Infrastructure.
“The partners the transatlantic relationship relies on matter today more than ever. Developments in the international environment are passed on through energy prices, transport routes, supply chains and the cost of capital, and they reach every project in this region. That is why infrastructure, energy and communications can no longer be planned country by country. They must be prioritized and integrated across borders,” said Frederick Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council.
Concelex’s proposals will be further developed together with Atlantic Council, and participants agreed to continue the discussion at an event to be held in Bucharest.
Concelex is an infrastructure company with more than 30 years of proven experience in delivering complex projects nationwide. Its portfolio includes critical infrastructure, energy, buildings, and urban regeneration projects, with national footprint. The company provides fully integrated services — from design to execution — for both public and private clients. With a growth strategy based on continuous investment in innovation, modern technologies, and team development, and an emphasis on professional ethics and integrity, Concelex recorded revenues of RON 1.4 billion in 2025. The company currently employs over 1,300 people and operates approximately 100 active construction sites across the country.
The company is a founding member of Atlantic Council Romania, and Radu Pițurlea, the company’s CEO, is a member of the Board of Directors for the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
