EU parliamentarians want to mark route with blue squares to help attract hobbyists and grow Europe's bike tourism industry

It used to be the death strip that kept the enemy at bay. Now the former Iron Curtain could come to serve a more benign purpose. This week a group of European politicians presented plans to promote the old dividing line between east and west as a cycling route.

The Austrian EU commissioner, Johannes Hahn, and the German Green MEP Michael Cramer unveiled the Iron Curtain trail project (pdf) at Vienna's House of the European Union on Monday.

The route, stretching more than 6,000 miles through 20 countries, starts at the Barents Sea in the north, then snakes its way past St Petersburg, along the Baltic coast, and down the old border between East and West Germany, until it reaches the Black Sea north of Istanbul.

It makes use of existing cycle paths, and €1.8m of EU funds have been set aside to improve the infrastructure. The route has been registered as part of the EU's Eurovelo network since 2012, but few cycling fans are aware of its existence.

EU parliamentarians such as Cramer argue that marking the route with small blue squares like those already in place over sections in north-east Germany and between the German-Czech border and Austria would boost Europe's growing bike tourism industry and give the route a distinct identity.

Cramer said the route had been inspired by the popular trail along the Berlin Wall, and designed to follow the old border as closely as possible, steering clear of major roads and taking in historic sites such as the Point Alpha US watchtower in Thuringia and the monument to victims of the Iron Curtain in Cheb, Czech Republic.

Over recent years, a gruelling European end-to-end tour between the continent's most southern and northern points – Tarifa in Spain and Nordkap in Norway – has become a cult challenge among cyclists.

The monument-scattered Iron Curtain cycle path, on the other hand, may also manage to attract more casual cyclists.

As Michael Hutchinson, a former professional race cyclist and author, pointed out, the Iron Curtain conveniently skirts around the Alps. "We racers are always looking for hills. But the flatness of the route means it might actually be doable for hobby cyclists too."

Anyone willing to take up the challenge should save up their holidays in advance: one team currently cycling the entire route is expected to complete it in a month.