Macedonian representatives told the European Commission that Macedonia is committed to building the Corridor 8 railway section to Bulgaria, and insisted that the plans are reworked and Bulgaria begins work on its end as well.

The move comes after Macedonia pulled out of the existing project, where the EU committed funds, but the project would have ended with a tunnel inside a mountain, with no corresponding Bulgarian plan to push through on their side. Sinisa Ivanovski, head of the infrastructure department of the Macedonian Railways, and Stefan Volkanovski from the Transportation Ministry met with EU and Bulgarian officials in Brussels, to discuss the impasse.

Macedonia is no giving up on a railway link to Bulgaria, but we can’t accept to implement the current project, that ends in a tunnel. There is no certainty on the Bulgarian side that they will take activities to link up. The only acceptable condition for Macedonia to implement this project is if Bulgaria also begins to project the tunnel and the two countries work together. That is the only way this project would make sense, the Transportation Ministry said in a statement.

The two countries decided to meet again by the end of the month, to work on the details for what should be a joint railway project.