Skopje, 20 December 2024 (MIA) — The loan of half a billion euros Minister of Finance Gordana Dimitrieska-Kochoska signed an agreement for with the Hungarian Export-Import Bank earlier on Friday — which will fully repay the country's 2018 Eurobond set to mature in January 2025 — should arrive on Jan. 9-10 "so we can pay back our debts in January," Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told the press.

"Here's the billion we promised," PM Mickoski said in response to a reporter asking him to comment on the Hungarian loan. "We are getting these 500 million to pay back our debts in January." 

"We are fighting and this is a fight," he said. "And this fight — I'm not saying it will pass without us getting any scars. There will be some." 

According to Mickoski, getting the loan has saved the country at least 200 million euros. "If he had issued a Eurobond, the interest rate would have been over six percent," he said.

The prime minister also said the government was planning at least three new infrastructure projects and would soon share the details with the public. 

"A very good thing, which no one noticed although it happened recently, is that two large investments in energy and green energy were finally unblocked: the Bitola Solar Park and the Bogdanci 2 Wind Park," he said.

"This wasn't done in the last seven years," Mickoski said, highlighting the importance of Parliament adopting the related laws.

Mickoski recalled that as of Jan. 1, 2026, anyone exporting electricity to the European Union needed to make sure it was generated in an environmentally friendly way and to back this up by a document that guaranteed its origin.

"If it is not, they will pay taxes," Mickoski said, adding this was clearly laid out in the EU's Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. 

"That's why what we're doing is so important. We are unblocking processes on a daily basis," the Macedonian PM said. mr/