Skopje, 5 May 2023 (MIA) - The Government at a session on Friday adopted five new draft bills on Corridors 8 and 10d, which will be submitted to Parliament in 'EU flag' procedure, i.e. a fast track procedure. According to First Deputy PM and Minister of Political System and Inter-Community Relations, Artan Grubi, the goal of the new bills is faster and cheaper construction of the corridors. 

It's up to the MPs now, said Grubi, whether the construction of the corridors will be faster and cheaper or slower and more expensive.

He also called on the opposition to stop blocking the legal solutions because by doing so, he noted, EUR 150 million from the citizens are being held hostage and national strategic projects are threatened due to daily political agenda.

"Instead of the project costing almost EUR 1.5 billion with the current legislation at home, there's a possibility that it costs EUR 1.3 billion with a more efficient system not only for this project on the construction of Corridors 8 and 10d, but for all future national strategic projects. In order to implement this, eight draft bills were submitted, which the opposition blocked, thus putting two years of citizens' lives hostage. We asked for these bills to be modified, and neither Bechtel nor Enka, nor both together, are looking for them, but we as institutions, the Government, MPs, public enterprises and the industry, are looking for them for a more efficient building system. Seeing the obvious blockade and hostage-taking of the bills by the opposition, and taking into account the interests of the citizens, the Government adopted today five new draft bills which it will submit to the MPs. Given that the EU has added Corridor 8 to the map of corridors, and given its geostrategic importance, together with Corridor 10d, as well as due to the fact that there has been a long debate in the public, we decided to propose the laws with an "EU flag" procedure. MPs should give up the blockades, not increase the price of highways by more than EUR 150 million and not threaten national strategic projects because of political agenda," Grubi pointed out.

Minister of Transport and Communications Blagoj Bochvarski said there is no more time for calculations on necessary roads, but one thing is clear - "we will either be a crossroads and the main European route in the Balkans, or we will remain a bypass because all other countries are working and rapidly modernizing their road infrastructure". 

"The Ministry of Transport and Communications made changes to two essential laws: the Law on Urban Planning and the Law on Construction. Citizens have the right to know that these legal amendments do not only refer to the construction of Corridors 8 and 10d. They are carried out in order to speed up all procedures for the construction of roads, railways, gas pipelines, energy buildings and other infrastructural buildings of public and national interest. This includes the projects financed with funds from the EU and grants that we receive from other financial institutions, and I would particularly highlight the main gas pipelines and the railway to Bulgaria and Albania. There is no bypassing of the procedures, no shortening of the construction stages. With the legal changes, we only speed up the procedures and reduce the deadlines for the sake of efficiency and economy in construction," said Bochvarski. 

North Macedonia, he stressed, must move towards the European perspective, but it must move with new and modern infrastructure.

Deputy PM Fatmir Bytyqi, Finance Minister Fatmir Besimi, Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi, Agriculture Minister Ljupcho Nikolovski, Deputy Labor Minister Enver Husejin, as well as Head of the State Labor Inspectorate Vesna Tomovska also attended the press conference. 

Grubi noted that the Government began today's session holding a minute of silence to honor the victims in the two tragic events in Serbia. 

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