Macedonia facing railway problems

Macedonia, an official EU candidate, is pushing for membership negotiations to finally start. It says it is ready for Europe and in Brussels the European Commission agrees. But as far as its railway system goes, the tiny land-locked country is still a long way off. For more than a decade now the Macedonian authorities have promised and failed to finish an 89 kilometre link to Bulgaria.

If Macedonia were already an EU member, it would be the only one not connected by railway to all of i...