American Investors See NATO's Eastern Flank as a Defining Opportunity of the Decade. Concelex a Romanian Infrastructure Company Proposes a New Concept to Build It: Sovereign Infrastructure

At a New York roundtable hosted by Concelex and Atlantic Council Romania and addressed by Romania's President, investors said the region's projects need clearly allocated risk and local partners able to build and maintain them for the long term

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- American investors regard NATO's Eastern Flank as one of the major investment opportunities of the decade, provided that projects come with clearly allocated risks and with local partners able to build and maintain them over the long term. That was among the conclusions of "Anchoring the Eastern Flank: Critical Infrastructure and Transatlantic Capital in Central and Eastern Europe," a roundtable held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, hosted by Concelex and Atlantic Council Romania and addressed by the President of Romania, Nicu?or Dan.

The event looked at how strategic infrastructure on the Eastern Flank will be assessed and financed over the next decade of investment, and how lessons 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. This is what we call Sovereign Infrastructure: infrastructure that can be built, maintained and restored with people and equipment on the ground, under national, regional or allied control. It makes the infrastructure industry a security capability, and it is also what we offer American investors: derisked strategic assets that generate long-term returns, resilient in any scenario," said Radu Pi?urlea, CEO of Concelex and a member of the 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. Both would rest on a Sovereign Infrastructure Index for NATO's Eastern Flank, which the company put forward as the tool that would record who can build each asset, who can restore it, how quickly, and under which jurisdiction.

Alongside President Nicu?or 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, investment banks and global funds, and American and Romanian companies in energy, engineering and infrastructure.

The discussion was opened by Frederick Kempe, the 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 of the Atlantic Council.

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. Concelex's proposals will be further developed together with the Atlantic Council, and participants agreed to continue the discussion at an event to be held in Bucharest before the end of the year.

About Concelex

Concelex is one of Romania's leading privately held infrastructure companies, with more than 30 years of experience delivering complex projects in Romania, which holds the largest infrastructure market on NATO's Eastern Flank after Poland. The company provides fully integrated infrastructure solutions, from design to execution, for public and private clients, with a portfolio spanning critical infrastructure, nuclear and conventional energy, transport, buildings and urban regeneration. Concelex is a founding member of Atlantic Council Romania, and its CEO, Radu Pi?urlea, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

Media Contact

Andrada Busuioc, Marketing & Communications Director, Concelex
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