Skopje, 1 August 2024 (MIA) - The funds for the construction of the railway to Bulgaria won’t be able to be repurposed, we can only discuss a new loan with the creditors, Minister of Finance Gordana Dimitrieska-Kochoska told media on Thursday.  

“When you request a purpose loan, you can’t use it for something else. We could only request that they reserve the funds and then apply for a new loan,” the Minister told journalists.

She said she met with representatives from the European Investment Bank and presented the Government’s arguments, asking what the economic benefit of the railway is and stressing that the railway to Thessaloniki is much more important for domestic businesses.

Over the past period, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and Minister of Transport and Communications Aleksandar Nikoloski have floated the idea of repurposing the funds since the railway to Bulgaria, according to their statements, ends in a dead end.

“It would be mad for us as a Government to agree with a project that ends in the middle of a tunnel in a dead end and spend half a billion euro of taxpayer money, since the cost of the project is EUR 560 million, of which 360 million are from a loan and 200 million are from a grant,” Mickoski said on Monday. 

Photo: MIA Archive