The first meeting of the joint Macedonian-Bulgarian working group on the cross-border railway tunnel of Corridor 8 was held in Sofia yesterday. The first. After all the declarations, memoranda and announcements this corridor has collected over the past three decades, the working group on the tunnel met for the first time.

It was chaired by the two countries' deputy transport ministers - Kaltrina Zekoli Shakjiri from the Macedonian side and Cveta Timeva from the Bulgarian. The Macedonian delegation included representatives of the ministries of transport, foreign affairs, interior, defence and environment, as well as the Public Enterprise for Railway Infrastructure and Railways Transport AD-Skopje.

What was agreed

According to the statement, the two sides confirmed their commitment to coordination at all stages of implementation. Agreement was reached on a clear timeline of activities and on defining concrete obligations for the institutions. The next meeting will be held in Skopje.

Zekoli Shakjiri stressed that building the cross-border railway tunnel is a strategic project of regional significance. Both sides also mention the European Commission's support as key to implementation.

What is not in the statement

Now it is worth reading that same statement again, but in reverse - to see what it does not say.

There is no date for the start of construction. No estimate of the tunnel's total value. No completion deadline. No indication of who pays how much. There is a „clear timeline of activities”, but the timeline itself has not been published.

That does not make the meeting pointless - working groups function exactly like this, step by step. It means this is the point against which every subsequent report should be measured. If the next meeting in Skopje produces an identical statement without a single new number, then what we have is a process sustaining itself.

Thirty years of corridor

Corridor 8 is the rail and road link meant to connect the Adriatic with the Black Sea via Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria. For Macedonia it is an exit to the east and a route towards Black Sea ports - an alternative to depending on the north-south axis.

Every government, in every term, has spoken about it as a priority. The railway link with Bulgaria still is not finished.

Which is why a first working group meeting is news. Not because it is a historic breakthrough, but because around here even a „first meeting” counts as progress. The question now is whether the next one comes with numbers - or just another photograph with flags.