Brussels, 11 October 2022 (MIA) - Hari Lokvenec, Director of the North Macedonia Railways, the public enterprise tasked with managing the railway infrastructure, on Tuesday presented the projects for the construction of key corridors in the country in an address before the European Parliament. In context of the energy and climate crisis, Lokvenec remined the MEPs that a focus on rail transport should be the goal of decarbonization of the economies in Europe by 2050. "The only means of transport that can meet this goal is rail transport because it is the fastest, cheapest and shortest way to connect all the while protecting the environment," he said. During the hearing at the European Parliament, where of all the participants North Macedonia was the only non-EU member, Lokvenec said this objective will be met with the construction of railway Corridor 8, from Albania via North Macedonia to Bulgaria. The plan, according to him, involves a connection from the Durres port on the Adriatic Sea via Skopje to the Black Sea in Bulgaria's Burgas and Varna, to connect the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. "This allows us to say that we'll build the European continental Bosporus," Lokvenec stressed adding that the infrastructure will enable three NATO countries to be connected. The Corridor 8 plan, he added, will conclude "a vital European initiative", which also involves the Baltic states and three seas, namely the Black Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Baltic Sea. As regards the eastern part of Corridor 8, tender procedures have been completed and procedures for the third section between the town of Kriva Palanka, North Macedonia, and the Bulgarian border, are under way. This tender should be opened in the first quarter of 2023 at the latest. "This agreement is considered the biggest challenge because there are 24 tunnels and 51 bridges along 24 kilometers. For this project, estimated at EUR 400 million, we've been awarded since 2017 EUR 61 million in IPA grants and a Western Balkans Investment Framework grant of EUR 155 million," said Lokvenec. Since over 50 percent of the finances are from EU funds, Lokvenec thanked on behalf of North Macedonia stressing it allows also close cooperation to be established with Bulgaria to meet the objective of railway connection by 2027. As regards the western section of Corridor 8, an application for technical assistance has been submitted regarding the Kichevo - Struga section and the one leading to the Albanian border. "According to our projections, we will complete construction works on Corridor 8 on Macedonian soil by the end of this decade. We ask you to support our strategies and plans and to include the western section in the central The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)," Lokvenec said in his speech at the European Parliament.