site.btaNorth Macedonia's Transport Minister Requests Talks for New Joint Project with Bulgaria on Corridor 8 Railway Route

North Macedonia's Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski is expecting a meeting with representatives of Bulgaria to discuss a new project for the railway line between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, which is part of Corridor 8.

"We need to find a common, feasible solution and have a Skopje-Sofia rail link to the Black Sea. I expect that in a reasonable, fair conversation they will say whether this route (via Kriva Palanka and Deve Bair) is the best for them or they have a better one and we will find a solution," Nikoloski told a press conference on the occasion of the first 100 days of Christian Mickoski's government, where he reported on the work done in his area of responsibility.

Nikoloski reiterated that, in his opinion, the designed route is not the best, that the prices for its construction are "inflated and unrealistic" and that the Republic of North Macedonia "does not have oil resources, nor does it export diamonds to spend so much money on so few kilometres" of railway.

The third phase of the railway line, part of Corridor 8, from Kriva Palanka to the Bulgarian border is 23.4 km long, with 22 tunnels totalling 9 km and 16 bridges totalling 5 km, and its construction has secured funding from an EU pre-accession grant "Financial Framework for the Western Balkans" and two loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The tendering procedure for the construction of this section of the route was extended under the previous government in North Macedonia. According to Aleksandar Nikoloski, the tender procedure "failed".

According to Nikoloski, the best option is to make a new project together with Bulgaria. "Otherwise there is no point. Yes, I think the best way is to create a joint project and propose it together. And the only logic and the only way to build a railway link with Bulgaria is to present ourselves together to potential contractors with a joint project. So I hope the Bulgarian side will agree (...)," Nikoloski said.

The issue of Corridor 8, which connects the port of Bari in Italy, through Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria, to the Black Sea, became topical in North Macedonia after Nikoloski said that the funds earmarked for it should go to Corridor 10 because the project for Corridor 8 is expensive and unfeasible.

Asked at Thursday's press conference about when meetings would be held with the Bulgarian side, the North Macedonian transport minister said he had turned down one meeting date for personal reasons, while for three other proposed dates "for a meeting in Brussels by the EU", the Bulgarian side said it was not possible. According to Nikoloski, a Tuesday meeting also failed due to a strike at the Brussels airport, which prevented Bulgaria's representatives from arriving.

Responding to a question whether he expects a dialogue with Bulgaria after his words to the state, Nikoloski reiterated that he stands by every word because in Bulgaria there are "20 politicians at the end of their political careers and historians who cannot make any other career than the one on the back of Macedonia", they have disturbed "the relations between two close nations like the Macedonian and the Bulgarian", but the construction of the railway link is a different matter and "if there are responsible people there", a way will be found to connect the two countries through a railway line.