PRISTINA (Kosovo), February 15 (SeeNews) – The European Union will provide a grant of 38.5 million euro ($47.6 million) to co-finance a project funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for upgrading Kosovo’s only international rail link, the bank said on Thursday.
The grant comes on top of a senior loan of 39.9 million euro from the EBRD provided in 2015 to finance the three-stage modernisation of Kosovo’s railway infrastructure, EBRD said in a statement following the signing of the grant agreement in Pristina
The EBRD will be implementing the EU grant, to be provided through the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF).
“The project will improve the connection between Kosovo’s railway network and the wider European network through Pan-European Corridor VIII and Corridor X,” the bank said.
The grant will be used to finance the modernisation of the southern section of Kosovo’s 148-km long rail route 10 - from Fushe Kosove near the capital Pristina to the border of Macedonia. The project also includes two other sections, Fushe Kosove to Mitrovice and from Mitrovice to the Serbian border, also benefiting from EU and WBIF financing.
The Kosovo rail route 10 project running southwards to Macedonia and northwards to Serbia is part of the Western Balkans core railway network, an extension of the Trans-European Transport Networks, which is part of the EU’s wider efforts to promote transport connectivity in the Western Balkans, the statement reads.
“The modernisation of transport infrastructure is one of the EBRD’s key priorities in the Western Balkans, helping to improve trade routes within the region, build well-integrated economies and develop stronger cross-border cooperation as well as improve people’s lives in Kosovo by offering better connectivity with the region and wider Europe,” Charlotte Ruhe, EBRD Managing Director, Central and South-Eastern Europe, said in the statement.
To date, the EBRD has signed 53 projects in Kosovo with a net cumulative business volume of more than 227 million euro. Kosovo became an EBRD member and country of operations in December 2012.
($ = 0.80740 euro)