29.3.2010 by Atahualpa.

Kosovo Approves €700 Million Highway Deal

Pristina | 29 March 2010 | Petrit Collaku

The Kosovo Ministry of Transport has approved a €700 million deal with Bechtel-Enka, a US and Turkish consortium, to construct Kosovo’s first highway.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said that the highway would help create jobs and give Kosovo access to the sea.

“This project will cost around €700 million, guaranteed by Kosovo’s budget from potential donors, and, in case it is needed, it will built with favorable soft loans,” Thaci told journalists.

According to Transport Minister Fatmir Limaj, the width of the highway will be 28 metres, with two lanes on each side. The highway will have protective barriers and walls to mitigate noise pollution.

The government’s contract with Bechtel-Enka will mean the highway is built in phases, starting with the section that runs from Vermice, on the border with Albania, to Qafa e Duhles, Suhareka municipality, in southwest Kosovo.

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http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/26974/

The government has also been criticized for delaying the start of work on the highway. Thaci said in an interview with the Kosovo financial daily Eko Biznesi that groundbreaking had been prolonged. He added that the government has continued to survey more than a dozen zones along the highway route for property boundaries, ownership and title.

Who will pay for the highway remains unanswered. The daily paper Kosova Sot reported on January 20th that banks in America and Germany along with Overseas Private Investment Corporation Bank have been mentioned as possible lenders.

Setimes

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/26974/

Albania-Kosovo Highway ‘to Cost Much More’

21 August 2008 Tirana _ The Albanian Government admits the highway linking the country’s coast with Kosovo will cost €630 million, more than €200 million than the original contract of €418 million.

The admission comes in a letter by Albania’s government to the International Monetary Fund.

The highway, which links the port of Durres with Kosovo, is the country’s biggest public works project in decades, however its has been dogged by allegations of irregularities and corruption.

Prosecutor-General Ina Rama is probing alleged irregularities in the tender for the construction of the highway won by the American-Turkish consortium, Bechtel-Enka.

Former Prosecutor-General Theodhori Sollaku began an investigation last year into alleged irregularities surrounding the awarding of the tender.

The investigation led to a request by Sollaku that parliament lift the immunity of Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha, who was at the time of the tender, the Minister of Transport.

Basha’s immunity was lifted by parliament at the end of December.

A few weeks earlier, President Bamir Topi had dismissed Sollaku, following a call for his sacking by a parliamentary commission, and nominated Rama, a former Serious Crimes Court Judge, as his replacement.

Local media have reported that several other officials from the roads department of the Transport Ministry are being investigated along with Basha.

Sources inside the prosecutor’s office have told Balkan Insight that though the case against officials who were directly involved in the road tender is clear cut, establishing the minister’s legal responsibility is more complex.

Although Basha has sought to characterise the investigation as a politically-motivated attack by Sollaku, since Rama took over, she has continued to push ahead with the probe.

http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/12536/

Senior Albanian officials implicated in corruption case 

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29.3.2010 by CrniLabudovi.

Pristina | 26 March 2010 | Petrit Collaku

Kermabon (left), Giffoni (middle) Bronsson

EULEX, the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, opened an office today in northern Kosovo. The goals of the new facility reflect the EULEX’s objectives for the whole of Kosovo: strengthening the rule of law, promoting good governance, and socio-economic development.

The office, which is called the EU house, will be hosted by EU facilitator Michael Giffoni, the current Italian ambassador to Kosovo, the EULEX press release said.

Giffoni claimed that the EU’s presence in the north of Kosovo shares the same objectives as in the rest of Kosovo: promoting stability, security, and prosperity for all people in Kosovo.

“I think that today’s meeting in these provisional premises of the so-called EU House is a positive step forward in this direction and it gives a concrete sign of the EU presence in Northern Kosovo,” said Giffoni.

The head of EULEX, Yves de Kermabon, stressed that other activities, such as the increased presence of police and customs officers at crossing gates 1 and 31 in the north, have resulted in a big decrease in smuggling.

He added that EULEX has reopened the District Court in the North which has since dealt with a number of cases with the support of administrative staff who were brought back to the court last summer….

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/26935/

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