Minister says construction of Peljesac bridge going on

Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butkovic said on Tuesday the European Commission had set no conditions for the construction of the Peljesac bridge and that there were no obstacles to its construction.

He told reporters the project was on and that communication with the Commission was constant, notably during the first stage of co-financing approval, which resulted in the Commission's decision last June to co-finance 85% of the project.

Earlier today, opposition MP Ivan Lovrinovic said that, "based on serious information from top government officials," he wanted to know if the Commission demanded the resolution of the Croatian-Bosnian sea border issue before the construction.

He demanded that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic say if the Commission had asked Croatia "in any document over the past three months" to solve the border issue and if, before approving the funding, it had asked of the Croatian government a guarantee that an agreement had been reached with Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the bridge.

Commenting on those claims, Butkovic said "Lovrinovic really isn't sufficiently informed or doesn't know that the European Commission has approved financing in the amount of EUR 357 million for Croatia's project of road connections with southern Dalmatia which will have four stages."

He recalled that a Chinese contractor was recently chosen to build the bridge and that the Hrvatske Ceste road operator today opened bids for overseeing construction.

(Hina)