Bechtel

Kosovo's then Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, called it one of the best infrastructural projects in the Balkans on the day it was inaugurated.

But the 61-kilometer-long motorway linking Kosovo and North Macedonia continues to yield controversies and corruption claims.

Bechtel looks set to clinch yet another highway deal in the Balkans, and transparency advocates are concerned.

Taking part in the meeting was also a delegation of the US company Bechtel, while the topic was a project to build the Pojate-Preljina highway, the government announced.

Romania's public roads authority, CNADNR, announced on Monday that it has awarded a 701 million lei (around 159 million euro) highway construction deal to a consortium made up of Spain's Corsan SA-Corviam Construccion SA and three Romanian companies.

Croatia expecting 1.5 billion-euro tourism project

“The highway will be remembered for years to come as the most expensive road ever built by the Albanian government,” Balla wrote on his Facebook page.

Balla accused current Albanian centre-right opposition leader Lulzim Basha, who signed the contract for the construction of the highway in 2006, of abuse of power, damaging to state to the tune of €190 million.

The US ambassador in Kosovo, Tracey Jacobson, says that after her diplomatic mission ends in Kosovo, she will find it hard to find an equally interesting job.