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We Europeans pay for it, but the Croats benefit from it. And our money is collected by the Chinese. It is the paradox of the Peljeac bridge (Peljeacello), two and a half kilometers of steel and concrete that, thanks to 13 spans of 98 meters supported on piles planted on a seabed of more than 200 meters, will connect Dubrovnik, the old Ragusa, with the rest of Croatia. A bold and indispensable work to remedy the geopolitical distortion that arose at the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia when the splendid Dubrovnik, destination of more than a million tourists in 2019, found itself separated from its own nation by a 12-kilometer corridor belonging to to Bosnia Herzegovina. That work, essential to jump over the absurd geopolitical frontier, is, however, debatable. Building it with European funds is China Road and Bridge Corporation (Crbc), a Chinese state-owned company that, in addition to building bridges to the four corners of the world, is playing the pioneer role in many New Silk Road projects.
A paradoxical situation to say the least for a Europe that finances itself knowing that it must fear the penetration of the Dragon in the Balkan area. A penetration that began in 2012 with the acquisition of the port of Piraeus and continued with the construction of a network of roads, railways and infrastructures that, pivoting on the Greek seaport, penetrate southern and eastern Europe. Projects that, in addition to increasing China’s commercial influence, multiply its political weight. Especially in the wake of a pandemic during which the EU was perceived not only as absent, but even hostile. The sudden European decision to block the transfer to the Balkans of masks and medical equipment so as not to put the member countries in difficulties was perceived last March as an inexcusable sign of selfishness on the part of Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. An indifference that China immediately made up for by sending everything that Brussels denied. It is precisely this remoteness from Brussels that now runs the risk of undermining the economic commitment offered by Europe to put an end to Dubrovnik’s separation from the homeland. Behind that separation was the return to the borders decided by Carlovitz’s seventeenth-century peace. So, to preserve independence and avoid Venetian conquest, the ancient maritime city of Ragusa allied itself with the Ottoman Empire. In return, she had to cede the north coast to the Turks as far as the city of Neum, 12 kilometers to the north. With the birth of Yugoslavia, all these territories became part of a Bosnia Herzegovina that today can thus interpose a double crossing between Dubrovnik and the rest of the Croatian territories. This double crossing with the arrival of summer and tourists becomes an ordeal for the inhabitants of Dubrovnik and their compatriots imprisoned by traffic jams, customs procedures and queues at the border. The only alternative to motorboats and ferries is only a bridge capable of connecting Dubrovnik with the Peljesac peninsula, the last Croatian branch before Neum and the Bosnian territories. A solution proposed since 1997 when Ivan Sprlje, then prefect of Dubrovnik, realizes that Bosnia and Herzegovina has no intention of guaranteeing the free movement agreements in its territories agreed with Zagreb just a year earlier. But the project, adopted by the Croatian government as early as 2000, is extremely complex. The Bosnian opposition at work, which has materialized in a series of exceptions that threaten to transform the dispute into endless international arbitration, is overcome only after six years of discussions. This delay, in addition to aggravating costs, ends up making the planned start of the works coincide with the great economic crisis that has spread from America to Europe since 2007. So everything falls into oblivion until 2013 when Croatia enters the European Union . However, the Croatian request to join the Schengen treaty and the expected European green light, it is said, by 2022, make the nightmare of the double border between Dubrovnik and the homeland even heavier. By transforming those bars into the European border, Schengen would make the controls even heavier and more strict.
Precisely for this reason, in 2017 the European Commission decided to assume the financing of the work by putting on the table 357 million euros, which is equivalent to 85% of the expected construction costs. But here comes the catch. Surprisingly, the contract competition was won by the Chinese from the Crbc capable of presenting a project that, in addition to costing 60 million less than those of the Austrian company Strabag and the Turkish-Italian consortium Astaldi-Ictas, foresees the end of the works with a six-month advance. The suspicions of “dumping” or an artificial cost containment practiced by the Crbc to guarantee its majority shareholder, the Chinese State, a crucial political presence in the area are immediate. But proving it is impossible. And so China plays bingo and wins, for the first time in history, a tender for the use of European funds. Money that will mostly end up in Chinese pockets since CRBC, like all Beijing companies, employs mainly engineers, technicians and workers brought from the homeland. Workers who do not wear uniforms, but who represent the industrious vanguard chosen by Beijing for the conquest of Europe.
