Albania


Ilir Paco of the "AIM" news pool reports for the Podgorica weekly "Monitor" in the August 7, 1998 issue, about the most recent initiative of the Greek foreign minister concerning the so called Dalmatian corridor - a project of a trans - Balkan highway.

The Greek minister Pangalos has presented to the officials in Tirana the latest Greek initiative about development of a communications corridor, which is supposed to pass along the Western coast of peninsulas, starting from the Greek town of Igumenitsa, across the Albanian territory, up until the Italkian port of Trieste. The Dalmatian corridor, as the project has been named of a trans - Balkan highway is expected to cost around three billion dollars. The funds will be asked from Brussels, where Greeks have strong influence with their European partners, who have, so far paid all the expenses dealing with main Greek highways. The Albanian answer to Pangalos was quick and positive. First it was foreign minister Milo, and later prime minister Nano, who have told the Greek foreign minister that they consider as positive the project which would connect the Western part of the Balkans through highways. It was not hard for them to comprehend, at least on paper for now, what it means to hard sell the geo - strategic position of their country, which is the last life saving raft of the country which finds itself on the verge of economic bankruptcy.

So, added to the famous corridor 8, which has already been rising hopes of the three million Albanians for the last few years, is another project, which, if applied to the full, should transform the hermetic territory of Albania into a strong transit zone which would connect Central Europe to the Medditeranean basin.

On February 28 of this year European Commissioner Van den Broek has officially opened the works on the Albanian part of Corridor 8, starting from a new port in Durres, the project will end up on the Black Sea coast, in the Bulgarian port of Varna in the year 2020.

Tirana has devoted a lot of attention to Corridor 8, and speeding up of its development was the theme of the discussions between the Albanian president Meidani and his Turkish counterpart Demirel when latter visited Tirana recently. Not a week passed by, Pangalos descended from the Olympus with a new plan (the Dalmatian corridor) in his pocket. This is not the first time that Tirana is forced to manoeuvre between Greece and Turkey. The war of corridors or markets between Ankara and Athens actually suits Tirana, which, as things seem, prefers to say yes to both projects.

At the moment it is needed to travel for a day to pass from the Greek border on the South towards Montenegro on the North. The reason for this is that the Albanian roads, which on many locations look like narrow and unwinding trails, passing through a very mountainous region. In the conditions where a modern highway would exist, this travel time would drop considerably, making it easier of for the Northern part of Greece to communicate with the Western part of the Balkans. But particularly, making available to Athens a direct surface route towards Central and Western Europe, which was lacking for last forty years.

On the other hand, by proposing a corridor which would intersect on the Albanian territory with another important route going in the direction of the Black Sea, the Greek want to reduce competition which would be created by the port in Durres to the ports in Northern Greece.

Convinced that it is gaining more than it is losing by the intersecting of the corridors, Tirana has responded affirmatively to the Pangalos idea of a Dalmatian corridor.



Source: Podgorica weekly "Monitor," August 7, 1998