The Para-Egnatia?
In recent years, one of Greece’s bete noires has been the «Para-Egnatia» Highway between Burgas in Bulgaria and Vlore in Albania which would have linked the Black Sea with the Adriatic via the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). For some people, this highway was our northern neighbors’ «anti-Egnatia,» and was considered to be against Greece’s best interests. At one time, there was so much panic that government and state officials were under pressure to undermine any discussion of the project at international level. The whole story, if one also considers the lack of similar interest in the fate of our own Egnatia Highway, is reminiscent of the farmer who prays that his neighbor’s cow dies instead of making sure that his own produces more milk. In actual fact, the Para-Egnatia may have existed in the minds of our northern neighbors but has never left the drawing board and does not look like it will ever do so. Neither Bulgaria, FYROM nor Albania have the capability of realizing such a project, even if they acquire the funds from the West, which has no reason at this time, when it is funding the Egnatia Highway, to pour several billion into a road that with not only be expensive but not a safe bet for transporting its goods to Eastern markets. The end result of all the uproar in Greece over something that in any case will not happen, was nothing but sporadic hysteria on the part of the media and in some political circles, chiefly in FYROM and Albania, where the public was given the impression that Greece was undermining their countries’ growth.
