The Minister for Local Self-Government Goran Milevski had a meeting in Albania with Zef Mazi, the chief of the negotiations team for EU integration, as well as the national IPA coordinator and the Minister for Europe and Foeign Affairs, Sokol Dedja. Milevski and Mazi discussed the priorities in the new Programme for cross-border cooperation between North Macedonia and Albania, in the frame of IPA III Programming period 2021-2027, as well as the experiences and things learned from the implementation of IPA II. Another important point in the discussion was the potential strategic projects which would be financed from the pre-accessible funds of the European Union, which are intended for cross-border cooperation, in the following period until 2027.

For the priorities, we agreed that in the IPA III Programme in the future we will focus on two main thematic priorities: economy, tourism and cultural heritage, and building of the municipalities’ capacities will be an added backup priority. – The Minister for local self-government Goran Milevski clarified.

According to Milevski, both sides reached an agreement that half of the funds will be intended to finance two strategic projects, and the other 50% of the funds will finance smaller projects for building the capacities in the municipalities, as well as ecology and tourism.

The meeting was successful, both sides are content, we found a common language, and in the future both countries need to develop because both of the countries wish to be granted a date for negotiations and , hopefully, become part of the European Union, Milevski added.

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