Page 60 - Ekonomija i Biznis_noemvri 2015.indd

FLASH WORLD
NEW RAIL CORRIDOR
“ALPINE - WESTERN
BALKANS”
At a meeting held in Vienna at the
beginning of this month, Austria,
Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and
Bulgaria signed a Memorandum
of Understanding in which they
have pledged to build a new
rail corridor „Alpine - Western
Balkans“. The corridor provides
two rail routes to Zagreb:
Salzburg - Villach - Ljubljana -
Zagreb and Linz - Graz - Maribor
- Zagreb. The corridor continues
through Belgrade and Sofia all
the way to the Bulgarian-Turkish
border. „This corridor will close the
massive transport gap in Southeast
Europe. This will strengthen the
reallocation of cargo transport
services by rail“ - said Alois Shtoger, of the Agreement since the
Minister of Infrastructure of
Austria. In a statement, he added
that he expects this corridor to
be connected with the Baltic -
Adriatic and the Danube corridor
which will further increase its
importance. It is envisaged the
newcorridorfirsttobeusedonlyin
cargo railway transport which will
facilitate the cross-border cargo
exchange in Southeast Europe.
By signing the Memorandum,
the corridor becomes part of
the TEN-T CORE network of the
European Union that enables the
European Commission to help in
its implementation.
60 November 2015
TURKEY AND RUSSIA
TO ARBITRATION FOR
THE PRICE OF GAS
Turkish gas company
„Botas“ filed an international
arbitration against „Gazprom“,
challenging the price of natural tion of roaming charges of mobile
gas. Under the Agreement of
February this year between
the two countries, Russia was
to provide a discount of 10.25%
for the supplied gas, but as
„Botas“ announced, in the
negotiations between the two
state companies this has not
been achieved yet. According
to the notification that the
Turkish state-owned company
sent to „Gazprom“, the purpose
of arbitration is to cover the
losses from the non-completion
beginning of this year until
now. The Agreement between
Turkey and Russia until the
end of last year and early this
year, was mostly a result of
the strained relations between
the Russian Federation and
the European Union related to
the construction of the „South
Stream“. Then an alternative
gas line „Turkish Stream“ was
announced, which according to
the Russian media has stalled
because of the failure of the
Agreement between the two
countries. Russia is the largest big advantage to the rich compa-
supplier of gas in Turkey,
satisfying about 60% of their
needs.
NET NEUTRALITY
INSTEAD OF ROAMING
IN EU
At the end of this month, the Eu-
ropean Parliament adopted the
new rules which require the aboli-
operators within the European
Union. This is an implementation
of the agreement reached by the
European telecommunications
authorities in June this year, and
the full implementation of the
new rules is expected to begin in
June 2017. According to the new
rules, when in another national
telecommunications field and
when connected to an external
service provider, mobile users
from EU countries will pay the
same prices as at home. Equal-
ization of domestic and roaming
prices shall be applied for calls,
short messages and mobile Inter-
net. It is considered that the Eu-
ropean authorities have achieved
the compromise with the large
telecommunications operators
by simultaneously adopting the
new rules on net neutrality ac-
cording to which operators will
be allowed to provide faster Inter-
net lines for those who are willing
to pay for it. This arrangement
was accompanied by numerous
comments from Internet users
who believe that this gives a very
nies, weakens the possibilities of
start-up companies and provides
a lucrative position of major op-
erators.