The Ministry of Transport of North Macedonia has accused Bulgaria of “distorting the facts“ regarding the contract for the construction of Corridor 8, the local newspaper “Nezavisen“ wrote. This statement comes after yesterday the Bulgarian media reported that “Bulgaria is fully ready to sign an agreement with North Macedonia and start the construction of a cross-border railway tunnel along Corridor 8“, quoting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport of Grozdan Karadzhov.
The Bulgarian minister made this statement on Monday during a working breakfast in Sofia with ambassadors of EU and NATO countries, dedicated to the progress of the strategic infrastructure project.
“The Republic of Bulgaria is again distorting the facts“, said a statement from the Ministry of Transport of North Macedonia in response to a question from the newspaper “Nezavisen“ how is the procedure for the agreement with Bulgaria on the construction of the tunnel and in general on the entire railway project that should connect the two neighboring countries going.
The ministry indicates that the government is strongly committed to the completion of the railway Corridor 8. They add that after receiving a request from Bulgaria to reach an agreement for the joint construction of the tunnel solution as a border point between the two countries, the government immediately formed a working body that should work to specify the details with the Bulgarian side for the implementation of this project.
“We emphasize, however, that after several requests and attempts on our part to organize a joint meeting of the working groups, there has been no official response from the Republic of Bulgaria to organize a meeting and reach an agreement for the implementation of this important European corridor. Also, the previously planned meeting between the directors of the two railway companies was canceled by the director of Bulgarian Railways, the Ministry of Transport of North Macedonia announced.
The statement also states that in March the European Commission, the EU Delegation to North Macedonia, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Secretariat of the Transport Community were informed that North Macedonia was concerned about the information presented to the Bulgarian public, which stated that due to a lack of financial resources, Bulgaria would not finance the reconstruction of the Sofia - Radomir - railway line. Pernik, as part of Corridor 8.
“In the spirit of regional cooperation and development and as a significant contribution to the economic development of the region, we expect the Republic of Bulgaria to finally take a stand and respond to the requests of the government and the Ministry of Transport to organize a meeting of the working groups and organize the process for the implementation of this regional project“, say the Ministry of Transport of our southwestern neighbor and add that currently North Macedonia is the only one of the three countries along Corridor 8 that is working on the railway section.
The Sofia - Skopje railway line is part of European transport corridor No. 8, which should connect the Black Sea with the Adriatic Sea.
The transnational East-West transport axis (Corridor 8) extends from the port of Bari in Italy through Albania and North Macedonia to the ports of Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria. The central part of this pan-European corridor passes through North Macedonia – Kichevo, Skopje, Kumanovo, Belyakovce and Kriva Palanka. However, there are no connections at the western end (from Kichevo to the Albanian border) and at the eastern end (from Kumanovo to the Bulgarian border), part of which (from Kumanovo to Belyakovce) was put into operation on 17 January.