The construction of Transport Corridor 8 will be of benefit to the whole region, including Croatia, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said during his meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in Zagreb, the government press office reported. The Bulgarian prime minister is on a working visit to Croatia.

"European integration of the Western Balkans will continue to be one of Bulgaria's major foreign policy priorities, as it is instrumental in achieving stability, peace and prosperity in the region. We very much appreciate the commitment made by the upcoming Croatian Presidency to continue the topic started during our Presidency," said Prime Minister Borissov.

The focus of the meeting was the consultations on the priorities of the upcoming Croatian EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2020, which will continue to work for the European path of the six countries in the region. The topic was placed high on the EU agenda by the Bulgarian Presidency and continued by the Austrian, Romanian and the current Finnish Presidency. The future of the Western Balkans is in the EU, Prime Ministers Borissov and Plenkovich reiterated.

The two prime ministers discussed the deepening trade and economic co-operation between Bulgaria and Croatia, as well as the potential to foster investment and attract mutual investors. Promising areas of partnership between Bulgarian and Croatian companies are infrastructure, tourism, food industry, information and telecommunication technologies, energy.

"We share a common interest in regional infrastructure projects. Therefore, we believe that the construction of Transport Corridor No 8 will be beneficial for the whole region, including Croatia, as it will provide an alternative route to the Black Sea and further to the Caspian region and Central Asia,” said Prime Minister Borissov.

The Bulgarian prime minister stressed that the two countries should jointly support the European policy for strengthening the energy infrastructure and the development of projects aimed at diversification of natural gas routes and sources. "We consider equally important the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector projects and the LNG terminal on the Croatian island of Krk," Prime Minister Borisov said. In the same context, the project for the construction of a gas hub on the territory of Bulgaria aims to create the necessary infrastructure connecting the EU gas markets with the countries of the Energy Community (Serbia, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).