Potential 1 billion Euros duck off from Albanian, Macedonian and Bulgarian economies

The unfinished road and rail network connecting the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea, known as Corridor 8, has failed to yield to Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania an estimated one billion Euros, according to the Bulgarian authorities. Macedonian press and Bulgarian news agencies report that though Bulgaria and Macedonia have been making some progress over the past decade, the network is far from being completed in any of the participating countries. Reports say that a rail line and some rail bridges constructed in Macedonia are already falling apart. While a Bulgarian film shows an unfinished tunnel in Bulgaria being used to grow mushrooms.
The Macedonian newspaper Dnevnik informed last week that Macedonia needs to still construct 89 kilometers of rail lines to link the country to Bulgaria and 66 kilometers to link it to Albania, but estimates that they will not be completed in the next five years. Albania must also make more significant progress in order to accomplish this project, which will help create a new trade corridor by linking the Italian ports of Bari and Brindisi to the Albanian port of Durr쳠and further to the ports of Burgas and Varna in Bulgaria.
Corridor 8 is one of the ten Trans-European Corridors. Being yet unfinished, it leaves Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria short of potential and unfulfilled economic benefits and uncollected revenues. Meanwhile, Bulgaria has become a full EU member, while Albania and Macedonia are expected to join the EU at a later time. Analysts evaluate that once this Corridor is completed and put in use, it might become an asset for both countries and help them gain ground in their political and economical efforts to join the European Union. But analysts also point out difficulties concerning the project’s progress, especially because of the mountainous relief between Albania and Macedonia and the poor state of existing infrastructure. Albanian Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli met Macedonian counterpart Trajko Veljanovski in Skopje last November and they decided to lobby in the EU in order to get financial aid.
The unfinished road and railway network has become the subject of a documentary by a Bulgarian director, Boris Despodov. The film named “Corridor # 8” was shown on “Hot Docs” Festival held in Toronto, Canada in April 2008.