Referendums cause delays, but mega rail investment proceeding
Ljubljana, 17 December - Large public projects rarely proceed smoothly, but the largest public infrastructure investment in Slovenia, construction of 27 kilometres of track from the inland hub of Divača to the port of Koper, is in a league of its own. The subject of two referendums and years of cut-throat politics, the project has been decades in the making. By the end of 2018, it finally appeared as if works could start in the foreseeable future.
Ljubljana
Passenger train.
Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA
File photo
Having narrowly survived a referendum motion in September 2017, the special law governing the project was put to another test in May after the Constitutional Court declared provisions of two laws governing referendums unconstitutional because they did not create a level playing field for referendum proponents and the government in the campaign. The motion was defeated again in May because voters did not turn out in sufficient numbers to meet the quorum requirement.
The gist of the referendums was whether such a project should be governed by a special law at all and whether Hungary should take part by footing about a fifth of the estimated EUR 1bn bill in exchange for better access to the port. The referendums resolved the first issue but left Hungary's role unclear.
That all changed when Alenka Bratušek became infrastructure minister. She entered office with the argument that Hungary's participation was not needed for the drawing of EU funds as the previous government had claimed.
When her ministry disclosed the content of talks with Hungary complete with discussions on preferential treatment of Hungarian contractors in public tenders and the prospect of it getting a lease on 50,000 m2 of land just outside the port for cargo storage, Hungary's exit from the project was cemented.
Without Hungary, Slovenia will have to come up with more money for the project. How it will achieve that remains unclear, a final plan is to be set into motion early in 2019.