Government secures EU grant and loans to finish third phase of rail to Bulgaria
EU grant of EUR 149m and EUR 175m in loans from EIB and EBRD will finance the last 22 km section; procurement work is underway and construction is expected by year-end.
The Government of North Macedonia has agreed to use European Union financing — a grant and bank loans — to complete the third phase of the rail link to Bulgaria after earlier IPA funding was lost.
Officials signed a package that includes a EUR 149 million grant from the EU together with EUR 175 million in loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Fatih Turkmenoglu, the EBRD director for North Macedonia, described the project as a regional connector that will ease travel and expand opportunities. "With the support of our partners, including the EIB and the EU, this project will bring the country closer to its neighbours and to Europe, will make travel easier, and thus increase opportunities," he said.
Technical and procurement steps
The final phase covers about 22 kilometres and is a complex engineering undertaking: it will include 21 tunnels and 52 bridges and viaducts. Authorities say offers from firms for supervision are now being reviewed, and the tender to select the main contractor is to be published this month, with construction expected to start by the end of the year.
A remaining technical and political issue is a roughly 3-kilometre cross-border tunnel at the state line. Skopje and Sofia have agreed to prepare a joint design and to seek co-financing. "We managed to reach an agreement with Bulgaria on building the cross-border rail tunnel. We expect a second intergovernmental meeting in Skopje at the end of the month, after which both states will send a joint request to the EU, the EIB and the EBRD for a grant to build the tunnel," said Aleksandar Nikoloski, the minister of transport and communications.
The opposition Social Democratic Union (SDSM) criticised the government for taking credit while losing earlier EU IPA funds. "Because for two years they did not know what to do with themselves, North Macedonia lost EUR 60 million from the European IPA funds that were part of the financing package. Now Mickoski is pulling out the remaining money and presenting it as his 'new investment'," SDSM said. The railway project — part of Corridor VIII — has been under construction intermittently since the 1990s; the section from Kumanovo to Beljakovce opened last year, while works from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka continue.
Photo: press material from the event
