"An attempt was made to bribe me to sign the acceptance of the tender documents for Corridor 8, Section 3."
This was stated by the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski, BGNES reported.
Mickoski did not specify who was behind the bribe. He informed the EU leaders with whom he met about this, and they, he said, accepted the arguments with understanding. Mickoski added that the dialogue with the Bulgarian side will be held in Brussels, at a high level, and the process will be supported by the European Commission (EC).
"I personally declare to the entire Macedonian public that for Corridor 8, Section 3, the railway, an attempt was made to offer me a bribe to sign as Prime Minister the acceptance of this tender document, which expires on September 17. That is why I said that as long as I am Prime Minister, I will not accept this tender. The days of this type of communication with the Prime Minister are over, maybe it was for some others, but not for me. All institutions that need to be informed have been informed. Naturally, this does not happen transparently and with evidence, through a document. It is known that this is a communication channel, but I am experienced enough to predict that the goal of the interlocutor is the one I was talking about," emphasized the head of the Macedonian government.
He added that priority is given to all the corridors that pass through the country, and Corridor 8 and Corridor 10 will be worked on with the same commitment because both are very important for the country.
"As for Corridor 8, before the start of the government session, we had communication with officials from Brussels, from the EC, as well as from the banks that provide a grant or loan for this project. These are the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), and I think that after today's meeting, even they are quite aware that the way the project is conceived is a serious problem. I can never as prime minister sign a project, spend half a billion of my citizens on a project that ends with half a tunnel in a dead end. As long as I am Prime Minister, that will not happen. And secondly, since I was the victim of a bribery attempt related to this project, I said that in this form I would never support it, because it is not only about the money of the Macedonian taxpayers but also of the European ones," Mickoski pointed out.
According to him, the second big concern is that the project is not finished.
"We expect the same commitment and concern that we show from the Bulgarian side, i.e. the other half of the tunnel to be completed, but also these 5-6 kilometres, which will have to be connected to the already existing railway line on the Bulgarian side, because we need the entire corridor, not to spend half a billion euros here, and they to do nothing. I will remind you about the Klepalo border crossing, when on the Macedonian side everything was completed, including the road and the border crossing, and on the Bulgarian side nothing was completed. And I will remind you that we are finishing it and if everything goes as it should, by the end of the year the expressway will be completed, which will connect the country with its eastern neighbour, which will end somewhere after Kriva Palanka. So we are working diligently on Corridor 8 and we will continue, but we expect the same commitment and the same diligence from our eastern neighbour because this corridor is a necessary goal as a strategic corridor," Mickoski said. | BGNES
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