EU Helps North Macedonia, Bulgaria Settle Dispute Over Railway Link
Source: Balkan Insight
A newly constructed part of the railway line from North Macedonia to Bulgaria. Photo: Government of North Macedonia.
The EU said late Wednesday that a high-level meeting in Brussels appeared to have resolved a dispute over the construction of a long-proposed rail link between North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Earlier this year, the newly elected government in North Macedonia argued that the railway line, which forms part of the pan-European Corridor 8, the European TEN-T overarching transport regulation and NATO’s mobility corridor, is too expensive and risks ending up at a dead end on the border, accusing Bulgaria of not working equally hard on its part of the line.
“The two countries agreed to hold a regular high-level dialogue and establish a joint working group for Corridor 8,” the European Commission said after the meeting between both countries’ transport ministries in Brussels.
“The respective ministries will work towards finding a coordinated technical solution for the construction of the cross-border section of the Corridor,” it added.
In summer, North Macedonia’s new Transport Minister, Aleksandar Nikoloski, criticized the project, insisting the stretch already under construction in North Macedoni was too expensive, costing at least 20 million euros per kilometer.
He also accused Bulgaria of not having a project for its side of the border, or a joint project for the border connection,. which would require a tunnel. Bulgaria insists the documentation for the construction of the line on its side is already done.
Nikoloski announced that his country would withdraw its commission members involved in the bid to construct the third and final phase of the railway line leading from Kriva Paslanka in North Macedonia to the Bulgarian border.
A tendering procedure for this stretch, launched by the previous government, had failed.
Thie rail dispute added friction to strained relations with Sofia. Both countries are already locked in a dispute over Macedonian identity and history, which Bulgaria is using to block the start of North Macedonia’s EU accession talks.
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, who took power in May, this summer suggested diverting funds from Corridor 8 to part of Corridor 10. The EU was quick to respond that such a relocation of funds is not permitted.
Financial support for Corridor 8, which aims ultimately to link the Albanian port of Durres, via North Macedonia, with the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas, includes a grant from the EU as well as funds from the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD.
Mickoski hinted that it would be economically more prudent to upgrade the quality of the existing railway line, which is part of Corridor 10, running from the Greek port of Thessaloniki through Skopje to Serbia and th EU.
After the Brussels meeting, North Macedonia’s Transport Ministry on Thursday changed its tune. “In line with the spirit of the European integration process and the need for modernization … we stay fully commuted to the construction of the eastern part of the railway Corridor 8,” it told the national broadcaster, MRTV.
The original article: belongs to Balkan Insight .
