site.btaNorth Macedonia's Stefan Vangelski: Cross-Border Cooperation Boosts Relations between Nneighbours

Stefan Vangelski, State Advisor for the IPA Cross Border Cooperation Programme at the Ministry of Local Self-Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, said cross-border cooperation contributes to improving relations between neighbouring countries. He addressed the closing conference of the Bulgarian News Agency's Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future Project, held in the Albena resort on Saturday.

The Ministry of Local Self-Government is responsible for EU-launched cross-border programmes and nearly 300 projects have been implemented in recent years, Vangelski said. Work is underway on new cross-border projects in the new programming period. 

The population of the Balkan countries is decreasing, there is an outflow of labour to Western Europe, Vangelski said, adding that it is a challenge to the economy to keep these people in the state institutions. "They are important to us, so we need to invest in their education, to motivate them to keep working on these programs."

Vangelski cited as a success a Bulgaria-North Macedonia cross-border project for an integrated system for forest fire prevention and control. The project aims to protect the environment and prevent and mitigate the impact of man-made natural disasters. 

The State Advisor said: "In the past few weeks, we have had more than a hundred fires, the situation was extremely complicated and most of the fires were in the eastern part of the country. The timely detection of the fire stops it from spreading." He noted that such cross-border projects contribute significantly to nature conservation, and that the Bulgarian partners also appreciate this project.  

"Cross-border cooperation contributes to improving relations between neighbouring countries and this will be to our advantage for the successful implementation of future EU-funded projects," Vangelski added. He said that in the coming years they will focus on environmental protection and the promotion of tourism and the cultural heritage. "We have been working with Bulgaria and Greece," Vangelski said. Skopje is open to two strategic projects for creating two border crossings between the countries.

Cross-border projects promote cooperation between neighbouring countries, which in turn helps them build trust, so that together they can build more secure and sustainable regions and contribute to the common prosperity of Europe.

The project Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future is implemented by BTA with the European Commission's support. It builds on an earlier project titled Europe in Bulgaria: A Common Future. As part of the latest project, BTA has organized 36 conferences, including six cross-border conferences, six major regional conferences and 22 local conferences. More than 300 representatives of central and local government, business, education institutions and NGOs participated in the discussions. Among the topics covered at the conferences were new developments in Cohesion Policy in the programming period until 2027, implemented and upcoming projects of relevance to local communities, good practices and challenges to beneficiaries.