A meeting was held yesterday at which the Advisory Body for the drafting of the preliminary study concluded that SAFEGE consultants would finish the final draft in six weeks and that the final report would be presented in eight weeks.
Said body comprises representatives of Croatia's transport and foreign ministries, Croatian Roads, Bosnia's Transport Ministry, and consultants of the SAFEGE/TECHNUM-TRACTEBEL Consortium.
The Croatian ministry said the deadline extension was requested by Bosnia to collect additional data on a final solution, adding that Croatia agreed to it in good faith, so that the preliminary study could be good.
Under the original deadline, the French consulting company SAFEGE had until September 22 to submit the study results.
The ministry also reacted to a letter which Dubrovnik County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic sent European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, saying it was a petty political attempt to bring into question the responsibility and seriousness of seeking a solution to connecting Croatia's south with the rest of the country.
The ministry denied the prefect's allegation that its representatives and SAFEGE consultants voted at a meeting in Dubrovnik in late August for the construction of the Peljesac bridge as the only possible option.