Slovenia to put rail project to referendum on Sept 24
04/07/2017 18:18
By Marja Novak
LJUBLJANA, July 4 (Reuters) - Slovenia's parliament voted on
Tuesday to put the government's flagship infrastructure project,
a 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) rail link, to a referendum on
Sept. 24.
The 27-km (17-mile) line is designed to speed up freight
traffic between the city of Divaca and Slovenia's state-owned
Adriatic seaport at Luka Koper LKPG.LJ . urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1G91SN
The lobby group Taxpayers Don't Give Up and the main
opposition party, the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party,
had pushed for the referendum, arguing that the line, as
projected by the government, was too expensive.
The centre-left government has already won 44.3 million
euros of European Union funds for preparation of the track,
while landlocked Hungary had said it is ready to invest about
200 million euros as it relies on Koper for much of its sea
freight. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1HE38Y
A rejection by voters would put the project on hold for at
least a year, and most likely longer as a parliamentary election
is due in mid-2018.
However, for a rejection to be valid, it needs not only a
majority of those voting, but also the backing of at least 20
percent of the 1.7 million or so eligible voters.
"We believe the project is of strategic importance to
Slovenia ... as it will have multiplicative effects on the
economy," Infrastructure Minister Peter Gaspersic told
parliament before the vote.
An opinion poll published by the daily Delo on Monday
indicated that 56 percent of those who planned to vote would
reject the project, but left unclear whether enough voters would
turn out to make the rejection binding.
($1 = 0.8815 euros)
(Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-1-5058805, Reuters
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: SLOVENIA RAILWAY/