The bank guarantee given by the Greek Archirodon company for the Cebren dam project in Macedonia will expire at the end of the year, Kanal 5 reports. This could endanger the large hydro project that is touted by the Kovacevski Government as a rare major foreign investment, that would reach a billion EUR.

Environment Minister Kaja Sukova insists that the company has filed a complaint over a regulatory issue that arose in the process. “We stick to what our laws mandate and we will notify the company of that. The guarantee is valid until the end of the year. If they extend it, it means that the process will continue”, Sukova said.

The project is controversial because it will give Greece, a country that has long been unfriendly toward Macedonia, control over a major water resource – the river Crna that would also affect the flow of Macedonia’s largest river Vardar.