The new pipeline, that is to distribute 300,000 tons of oil derivatives per year, will be completed in two years.

 

"This is difficult time for the global economy, " Okta Director Petros Karalis said, adding that the Balkan countries are not considered as secure for investments.

 

"Therefore, criticism of a company, such as "Elped Balkaniki", which has invested US$ 160 million for three years, is rather strange. Our response to such criticism is further investment in new infrastructure project, worth US$ 20 million, which will be completed in 2003," Karalis said.

 

Okta trade union leader Dane Ristovski gave credit to the employer on keeping of all employees and full respect of their rights.

 

Agref Fijotis, Secretary-General at the Greek Ministry of Development, referred to the Greek plans for development of the energy sector in the Balkans, pointing out the Greek investments in oil and electric power industry in Macedonia.

 

Referring to conditions, under which the "Okta" refinery was sold, Georgievski said that until 1998, the oil business in Macedonia was shared between "Okta" and "Makpetrol". In 1998, "Makpetrol" financial report was at positive zero, while "Okta" presented a loss of US$ 140 million, Georgievski said.

 

"It is really a mystery how today, after three years, "Okta", Makpetrol" and many new gas stations are making profit, which is probably the answer why the "Okta" privatization, the largest in Macedonia (Hellenic Petroleum paid US$ 32 million in cash) has many enemies among both Macedonian and Greek businessmen," Georgievski said.

 

"There is another political attack on this project. It might present an obstacle to constructing of another pipeline - AMBO. I confirm, bearing full responsibility, that the Macedonian Government has granted all approvals for construction of the AMBO oil pipeline. The problem is that the project has been discussed for 10 years, but no investor has appeared so far to start it," Georgievski said.

 

About US$ 30-40 million will be invested in the oil pipeline to Kosovo, long from 60-100 kilometers.

 

 

 

SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonia on Saturday marked the start of the building of a key pipeline for oil products between the capital of this Balkan country and Kosovo, neighboring Yugoslavia's troubled NATO-run province.

 

In a ceremony inaugurating the construction, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said the pipeline will take about two years to build and cost dlrs 35-40 million.

 

The pipeline, funded entirely by Greece Macedonia's southern neighbor will stretch 100 kilometers (60 miles) and ferry oil products from the Okta oil refinery in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

 

The pipeline, owned by Greece's Hellenic Petroleum S.A. giant, is expected to enable a yearly flow of 300,000 tons of oil products such a gasoline and heating oil, alleviating the burden of transporting crude oil derivatives by road.

 

The new oil artery for Kosovo became possible after a pipeline linking Macedonia's main oil refinery to the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki opened in June.

 

Greece owns a 69.5 percent stake in the Okta refinery and is Macedonia's largest foreign investor, with more than dlrs 300 million invested in various ventures over the past few years.

 

Relations between the two Balkan neighbors have improved in the past few years despite a continued disagreement over Macedonia's name. Greece contends that the usage of the name Macedonia for this country masks territorial pretensions over a northern Greek province of the same name.

 

Kosovo officially remains part of Yugoslavia, which borders Macedonia to the north, but has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when the military alliance bombed Serb troops to stop former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

 

 

In 1862 the First Bulgaria Legion was disbanded in Belgrade.

 

In 1883 a Dragan Tsankov-led cabinet was formed.

 

In 1940 an agreement was signed with Romania under which South Dobrudja was returned to Bulgaria.

 

 

 

Shooting in Sofia downtown panicked the passersby along the 'Nikola Vaptzarov' boulevard yesterday. Unknown slaughterers attackers riddled a black Audi with shots at 3.45 p.m. 32-year-old Vesselin Hristov, who was in the car, is known to the police as a junkie. He miraculously got off with light wounds only. The action took place only several meters away from the office building of the National Service for Organized Crime Combat and the counterintelligence. Gen. Boiko Borissov said later that the point was in settling accounts between drug dealers.

 

 

Turkish aces greeted Parvanov on the Union Day.

The ruling majority seems more open to dialogue following its criticism at the beginning of the new political season, President Georgi Parvanov told the press Friday. President Parvanov is attending the Sky to All International Aviation Festival at the Graf Ignatievo air base. He expressed the hope that the new political season will be different and Bulgaria's political elite - incumbents and opposition, more consolidated. President Parvanov said that by the end of the day he hopes to be able to discuss the opening of the political season and all topical political issues with Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who is also guest of the Festival. Asked about the transformation of the post of Chief Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior into State Secretary, President Parvanov said that he does not have the right to change the structure of the Cabinet and even more so its personnel. This is solely within the powers of the Prime Minister, Parvanov said. He categorically denied any confrontation between himself and the Prime Minister. "We are maintaining excellent dialogue with the Prime Minister ," the President said. The head of state said he expects the European Commission's progress report on Bulgaria to be positive. What remains to be seen is how this positive evaluation will affect concrete decisions of the European Commission, Parvanov added. He stressed that he expects the EU to apply to Bulgaria and Romania the same criteria as to the ten EU candidate states to join the EU in the first wave of accession.

 

 

 

 

Bulgaria worked a new miracle once again to flabbergast Europe. The miracle is a small but is quite detrimental. The miracle is named Nikolay Vassilev and works as Bulgaria's Vice-PM. Foreigners never fail to stand flabbergasted as he opens his mouth. The euro-commissioners in Brussels were amazed to hear Vassilev's boasts. One of them explained with astonishment that he never heard an EU applicant to boast in such a way. Oh, Vassilev, have you forgotten that you don't speak to MPs coming from Poibrene? In contrast to them, the Westerners are well aware of everything - both of poverty in Bulgaria and the shady deals.