site.btaDeputy PM in Skopje Says Turkish Company Offered Bribe to Secure Project for Rail Link between Bulgaria, North Macedonia

Seven Turkish companies participated in a tender for the construction of the Corridor 8 railway line, which is to connect Bulgaria and North Macedonia and one of them offered a bribe, said the Minister of Transport and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Aleksandar Nikoloski, quoted by the MKD newspaper. Following remarks by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on Tuesday about somebody having tried to bribe him in connection with Corridor 8, the procedure for selecting a contractor for the works was suspended.

The government is not abandoning the project, but plans for it will be reviewed and a solution sought with the EU and Bulgaria, the paper said.

The project is estimated to cost EUR 560 million. Deputy Prime Minister Nikoloski revealed that no companies from EU member states had submitted bids for the tender.

"Seven companies applied, but none were from reputable EU member states. Some tried to bribe me and other officials. Because of these problems and the compromised project, we decided to withdraw the evaluation teams. This action underscores our commitment to integrity in implementing the project," Nikoloski said. 

The railway project faces significant challenges, including the construction of 22 tunnels and 56 bridges on a 23-kilometre stretch. The estimated cost is about EUR 20 million/km. Currently, 23 km of railway remain to be built from Kriva Palanka to the Bulgarian border.

The transnational East-West transport axis (Corridor 8) stretches from the port of Bari in Italy to the ports of Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria. The central part of this 315 km long pan-European corridor passes through North Macedonia - Kichevo, Skopje, Kumanovo, Belakovce and Kriva Palanka. However, there are no connections at the western end (from Kichevo to the Albanian border) and at the eastern end (from Kumanovo to the Bulgarian border).

The official start of construction works on the railway part of Corridor 8 on the territory of North Macedonia in the section Kumanovo-Beliakovce-Kriva Palanka took place in October 2022 near Kumanovo with the participation of the then Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, Galab Donev and Dimitar Kovachevski. 

On December 22, 2023, a public tender was announced for the contractor of the third section of the Corridor 8 railway line on the territory of North Macedonia - from Kriva Palanka to the border with Bulgaria. The construction of this section of the railway was to start in 2025. 

The total length of the eastern end of the Corridor 8 railway is 88.2 km, of which 34 km, i.e. the Belakovce - Kriva Palanka leg, is being built with financial assistance from the EU, provided through the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF), financed by a grant of EUR 75 million and national co-financing. Funding for the completion of the eastern end of Corridor 8 to the border with Bulgaria has been secured from an EU pre-accession grant (Financial Framework for the Western Balkans) and two loans from the EBRD and EIB. On the territory of North Macedonia, the project has to be built according to European standards in order to make the railway compatible with the railway lines in Europe.