site.btaUPDATED North Macedonia Delays Railway Project Pending Bulgaria's Completion of Corridor 8, Says PM Mickoski

Until Bulgaria completes its part of the Corridor 8 railway tunnel that connects it with North Macedonia, as well as the kilometres of the railway line "from the tunnel to the connection with the railway line of Bulgaria", North Macedonia will not build the third phase of the railway line on its territory, Prime Minister Hristian Mickoski said in an interview with TV Sitel.

According to him, until Bulgaria completes its part of the project, the construction of the line from Kriva Palanka to the border with Bulgaria "will be a waste of public money" that the citizens of North Macedonia have to pay.

To the remark that the construction of Corridor 8 is being implemented with the help of European funds, Mickoski said that currently the budget for the implementation of this project is EUR 550 million, of which EUR 200 million are grants and EUR 350 million are loans that have to be repaid.

"My modest engineering experience says that construction will require at least another EUR 200 million. So from EUR 350 million we will get to half a billion, money that we will have to pay. And yes, the EUR 200 million that is a grant will be paid by European taxpayers, but we are at EUR 500 million. We don't need to spend people's money on a 22-kilometre line that won't be functional," Mickoski said. 

Asked why he thinks Bulgaria will not build the tunnel, the North Macedonian prime minister pointed to the Klepalo border crossing as an example, which was built by the North Macedonian side, while in Bulgaria "not even one cubic metre of sand has been piled".

"Experience says that we are finishing our work, but on the other hand the implementation is somewhat slow," Mickoski said. 

In his words, Bulgaria has committed to finish the project by 2026 and to build the line on its side by 2028, but in Albania, which is also part of Corridor 8, "there is nothing, nor anyone talking about Corridor 8".

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 1,315 kilometre long pan-European corridor passes through Northern Macedonia. 

The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) Friday said in a press release that North Macedonia has signed a memorandum of understanding on Corridor 8 with Bulgaria. The opposition party notes that there is also an agreement signed with Serbia for the high-speed railway line Nis-Skopje and that both agreements are of key importance for the development of the country's infrastructure and connectivity with its neighbours and the region. 

SDSM points out that it has proposed, and that Mickoski has agreed, "at least EUR 400 million from the Growth Plan to be allocated for the railway", but the current prime minister "manipulates the public that EUR 500 million will be spent on this project by the government of North Macedonia". According to the opposition party, government representatives in Brussels on Monday have confirmed the financial structure for the rail link with Bulgaria, according to which the direct participation of the state amounts to just EUR 18 million.