Skopje, 14 March 2025 (MIA) - Corridor VIII is a national priority for Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Transport Ministry told Bulgarian News Agency BTA late on Friday, stressing it had not postponed the construction of the railway line to the Republic of North Macedonia.

The Ministry assessed the claim that Bulgaria had postponed the modernization of its section of the railway as “media speculation”.

“The Ministry of Transport and Communications has been making efforts for years to develop Corridor VIII, which connects the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea through Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Of the total length 1,220 km of railway, more than half (747 km) lies in Bulgarian territory, and just 2.5 km of railway linking Gyueshevo in Bulgaria with Deve Bair in the Republic of North Macedonia remains to be built. This section is funded under the Transport Connectivity Programme 2021-2027 and will be completed as planned by 2029. By comparison, the missing section in North Macedonia is about 70 km,” the Ministry told BTA.

The Bulgarian Ministry recalled it had sent a draft-agreement to the Government of North Macedonia on the construction of the Corridor VIII cross-border railway tunnel and noted it is yet to receive an official response from North Macedonia.

“On January 15, 2025, in line with established procedure, Bulgaria sent the Republic of North Macedonia a draft-agreement on the cross-border railway tunnel, which assumes that the parties have a shared goal – the construction of the cross-border railway tunnel between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, including through the implementation of public procurement for the construction and supervision of the construction of the tunnel by one of the contracting parties and the efforts to secure grant assistance for its construction, since the tunnel has to meet EU and NATO requirements for this type of infrastructure. So far, we are yet to receive an official response from the Republic of North Macedonia,” the Bulgarian Ministry said.

Earlier on Friday, the Minister of Transport and Communications of North Macedonia, Aleksandar Nikoloski, said the Bulgarian Government had sent a “political message regarding their lack of commitment to constructing a railway along Corridor VIII” by repurposing funds originally intended for the reconstruction of the section connecting Skopje and Sofia to the construction of a line linking Sofia and Burgas.

“Letters have been sent to the European delegation, the European Transport Community and to the European Investment Bank and EBRD after the Bulgarian government said yesterday it hadn’t singled out funding for the railway that should connect Sofia and Skopje through Corridor VIII,” Nikoloski said Friday, adding “the propaganda against the government, PM Mickoski and against me has fallen through.”

“Our country remains strongly committed to constructing Corridor 8 railway. At the moment, construction works have been intensified on the second 34-kilometer section from Beljakovce to the town of Kriva Palanka,” Nikoloski told members of the media.

Photo: MIA Archive