The Ministry of Transport announced today that the European Investment Bank (EIB) wants to activate as soon as possible the funds earmarked for the modernisation of Serbian railways in the amount of €200 million, and the precondition for this is a rapid elaboration of an environmental impact assessment.
The statement says that Minister of Transport Milutin Mrkonjic underlined at a meeting with a delegation of EIB that works on the railway Corridor 10 are performed as planned.
He said that the key tasks of the Ministry are the reconstruction of railways and the completion of Belgrade ring road, transformation of the national air carrier and activities on the implementation of the Danube Strategy.
Mrkonjic expressed satisfaction over the fact that the Ministry continues a very dynamic and effective cooperation with the EIB, which in the past was also at a very high level.
The EIB delegation, led by Head of the Division for the Western Balkans Dominique Courbin and Head of the EIB Belgrade Office Andreas Beikos noted a high degree of cooperation in all the projects that are underway, and in future investments envisaged by the Master Plan for the Western Balkans.
Courbin said that the EIB has accepted the request of company Corridor 10 to change technical details, which included changing the financing agreement.
He said that it is necessary to complete the remaining work related to expropriation by the end of the year and offered Serbia to withdraw more funds from EIB for this purpose that are planned for 2013.
EIB wants to approve funds worth €80 million for the completion of Belgrade ring road, he said, and explained that the EIB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank plan to give joint loans to Serbia for many projects, the statement adds.
Source Serbia Gov.
