Bulgaria locked down funding for the Sofia-Skopje railway through the Connecting Europe Facility running until 2034, which basically means Corridor 8 is getting finished on Bulgarian turf. Deputy Prime Minister Grozdan Karadjov dropped this update at a transport ministers meeting in Brussels, where EU Commissioner Apostolos Zidzikostas and officials from the Western Balkans were hanging out.
Karadjov went off about how north-south corridors need more juice because they could drive growth and energy security. He pushed for better Black Sea connections to unlock new shipping routes and hook the region into worldwide trade. The guy basically said Europe keeps treating these projects like separate national deals instead of one big connected system.
He complained about how progress gets wrecked when one country finishes its side of a cross-border project while the other drags its feet. Karadjov also griped that permit processes take longer than actual construction, which tanks competitiveness before anything even gets built.
Karadjov went off about how north-south corridors need more juice because they could drive growth and energy security. He pushed for better Black Sea connections to unlock new shipping routes and hook the region into worldwide trade. The guy basically said Europe keeps treating these projects like separate national deals instead of one big connected system.
He complained about how progress gets wrecked when one country finishes its side of a cross-border project while the other drags its feet. Karadjov also griped that permit processes take longer than actual construction, which tanks competitiveness before anything even gets built.
