The Prizren-Tetovo Tunnel After the Kurti-Mickoski Meeting: Kosovo Already Voted, Macedonia Hasn't Ratified Yet
Kosovo's side costs about €200 million and is already funded. Macedonia's side has neither ratification nor a public estimate yet.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, after meeting Hristijan Mickoski in New York, repeated that the Prizren-Tetovo tunnel is "a project of particular importance" for citizens, tourism and the economy of both countries, calling for faster procedures. Mickoski echoed the same message — but behind the statements sits an uneven status on the two sides of the border.
Kosovo has already passed the design agreement for the tunnel and set aside funds for expropriating the land the road will cross. In Macedonia, ratification of the agreement has not gone through yet. Deputy PM Izet Mexhiti previously said the project had been discussed, but that the Skopje-Blace highway remains the priority.
Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski confirmed data is still awaited from the Kosovo side for designing the tunnel section, after an intergovernmental commission with representatives from both governments was formed. The project, according to Nikoloski, is technically complicated because of the Šar Mountain terrain and will be "expensive" — with no specific estimated value publicly disclosed so far.
The Kosovo side, from the village of Manastirica to the "Ibrahim Rugova" highway, costs about €200 million, according to Kurti's statements. The Macedonian side still has no corresponding publicly disclosed estimate for its portion of the project. The gap in pace — legislative and financial — is what keeps the word "project" sounding, for now, closer to "intention" on the Macedonian side.
MKNews Hub · World · September 24, 2026