Until Bulgaria completes its part of the railway tunnel. Corridor 8, which connects it with North Macedonia, as well as the kilometers of 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. the line on its territory, Prime Minister Hristiyan Mitskoski 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 funds“, which the citizens of North Macedonia must pay for.
To the reply that the construction of Corridor 8 is being implemented with the help of European funds, Mickoski stated that at the moment the budget for the implementation of this project is 550 million euros, of which 200 million euros are grants and 350 million euros are a loan that must be repaid.
„My modest engineering experience says that (for construction) at least another 200 million euros will be needed. So from 350 million we will reach half a billion euros, money that we will have to pay. And yes, 200 million euros, which is a grant, will be paid by European taxpayers, but we have 500 million. We don't need to spend this public money on 22 km. a line that will not be functional“, Mickoski declared.
When asked why he thinks that Bulgaria will not build the tunnel, the Prime Minister of North Macedonia pointed as an example to the "Klepalo" checkpoint, which was built by North Macedonia, and in Bulgaria "not even a cube of sand has been poured".
„Experience says that we are finishing our homework, but on the other hand, the implementation is kind of slow,” Mickoski said.
According to him, Bulgaria has made a commitment to complete 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 is anyone talking about a 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-kilometer pan-European corridor passes through North Macedonia - Kichevo, Skopje, Kumanovo, Belyakovce and Kriva Palanka.
When asked where his optimism regarding North Macedonia's European integration path comes from, Mickoski stated that “the number of European and world diplomats who look with sympathy is growing” to the arguments and positions of the country related to the decision that his government proposes - that the changes in the constitution enter into force after the Bulgarian parliament ratifies the agreement on the country's accession to the EU.