The topic of the railway connection with Bulgaria was reopened by DUI deputy leader Bujar Osmani, accusing the Government of failing to secure a contract for the construction of the Corridor VIII railway and that EUR 60.7 million of European funds were lost because of this. However, instead of defending, the Government launched a counterattack.
Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski says that the criticism comes precisely from a man who was part of the government that, according to him, left the project in a state that could practically not be realized. Nikoloski claims that the current Government inherited a tender for a railway line that ended with, as he says, a “dead-end halfway tunnel”, and the deadlines for using European IPA funds were already about to expire.
Instead of continuing with, in his opinion, a dysfunctional project, the Government decided to cancel the tender and open new talks with the European Union and Bulgaria. The result, as the minister claims, is an agreement for the construction of a complete cross-border tunnel, which will be implemented with a grant from the European Union.
Additionally, Nikoloski informed that the first meeting of the joint Macedonian-Bulgarian working group has already been held, and a joint address to the European Union, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is being prepared to secure the financial construction. He also pointed out that a grant of EUR 149 million has already been secured for the third phase of Corridor VIII.
That is why, according to the Deputy PM, Osmani’s criticism is an attempt to divert attention from the decisions made during the period when DUI was part of the government. In a post on X, he said that the current government is “fixing another stalled project”, adding that “there will be a railway, just like there will be motorways”.
