Skopje, 17 July 2025 (MIA) – Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the Brussels meeting between the Macedonian and Bulgarian delegations on finalizing the section of the Corridor VIII railway and the cross-border tunnel was extremely successful.

"I expect that these meetings will result in the following: Us completing the section of the Corridor VIII railway from Kriva Palanka to the entrance to the tunnel, from the exit of the tunnel to the connection with the existing railway, which is two or three kilometres, to make a project and have Bulgaria, as a state, implement it, including the modernization of the entire railway from Gyueshevo to Sofia, and the tunnel should be a joint project, which will be funded by the European Union," PM Mickoski said in response to a reporter's question on the agreement reached in Brussels for the railway with Bulgaria, which is part of Corridor VIII. 

He noted that these are roughly the concepts to which the solution should converge, adding "I am satisfied that we are showing that we can build consensus when it comes to common interests". 

The Ministry of Transport said in a press release on Thursday that the State Secretary of the Macedonian Ministry of Transport, Stefan Volkanovski, and the head of the Railway Infrastructure public enterprise, Sinisha Ivanovski, attended a meeting with Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Lyuben Nanov, in Brussels, organized by Valentina Superti, Director for the Western Balkans at the European Union’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood. Regarding the joint project for the construction of the cross-border tunnel between Gyueshevo and Deve Bair, both sides agreed to form working groups that will finalize the text of the intergovernmental Agreement by the end of July, aiming to define the specific obligations of both parties regarding the technical, financial, construction, and operational aspects. 

Photo: print screen