October 3 (SeeNews) - The Western Balkan countries need EU-backed investments for about 20.6 billion euro ($22.5 million) by the end of 2030 in order to upgrade the main Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) across the region, Bulgarian transport minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said.
The inclusion of Bulgaria's links with Serbia and Northern Macedonia in the priority corridor of the main TEN-T - Orient/Eastern-Mediterranean will be confirmed in the new Connecting Europe Facility after 2021, the transport ministry said in a statement on Tuesday quoting Zhelyazkov as saying during a regional roundtable in Podgorica, in Montenegro.
The railway projects that will improve connectivity in the East-West direction, in the part from Sofia to the Western Balkan countries, include the modernisation of railway lines from Sofia to the borders with Serbia and Northern Macedonia, he noted.
($ = 0.9136 euro)