Brnabic: "Open Balkan" greatly contributed to improving relations with North Macedonia

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, stated that economic and political relations between Serbia and North Macedonia were getting better, which, she added, had largely been contributed to by the Open Balkan initiative.

At a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski, Brnabic said that the Memorandum signed today in the field of infrastructure would enable citizens to use the electronic payment system to travel on highways in Serbia and North Macedonia without additional stops to purchase the electronic payment system in one country or another.

"We are now continuing further discussions regarding the harmonization of this interoperable electronic payment, we have 30 days to harmonize, and an additional 60 days to test this system. We expect to put the system into operation during the summer season," Brnabic said.

She also states that joint work will continue.

Brnabic hopes to expand that system to Albania, again within the framework of the Open Balkan initiative, but also to Croatia and Greece.

Brnabic also emphasized that Serbia supported the European integration process of North Macedonia and stated that on April 6, an innovative memorandum on cooperation in the field of European integration, which the two countries signed for the first time in 2013, would be signed. Also, he says that whenever Serbia speaks in Brussels about its interests in relation to European integration, it equally advocates for the European integration process of North Macedonia and Albania, because the interest of the entire region is European integration as quickly as possible.

"What is good for the region is also good for Serbia," the Prime Minister added.

Speaking about the political relations between the two countries, Brnabic says that the date for the third joint session of the two governments, which will be held in Serbia, is currently being agreed upon. The Prime Minister states that during today's meetings they discussed mutual cooperation in the field of energy and emphasizes that cooperation in that field is important.

"That cooperation concerns the gas interconnector that we will build between Serbia and North Macedonia," Brnabic said.

She says that they are discussing border cooperation in terms of improving the Presevo - Tabanovce crossing and how to improve the crossing during the summer season. She adds that technical meetings will be held on this issue as early as next week. She emphasized that in February of last year, after 17 years, the first meeting of the mixed commission of the two countries for minorities had been held and added that she hoped that the next meeting would be held in Skopje by the end of the year.

She announced that the identification number for the "Open Balkan" would begin to be distributed from July 1 and added that Serbia's exports to North Macedonia had increased by 16 percent in 2022, but that Serbia's imports from North Macedonia had increased by 56 percent.

"Serbia is currently the fourth trading partner of North Macedonia, after Germany, Great Britain, and Greece," Brnabic said and added that today they also had discussed how to further improve trade and exchange in agricultural products.

When it comes to the cultural cooperation between the two countries, the Prime Minister said that Serbia planned to use its cultural center in Paris for the promotion of the Open Balkan and added that the Ministry of Culture of North Macedonia had given its consent.

As she said, she also had spoken with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, and that they also gave their consent, so that the implementation could begin.

"Let's start implementing that in the Serbian cultural center in Paris to promote the culture of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania," Brnabic said and pointed out that this showed how important it was for Serbia to preserve the culture of heritage with North Macedonia and Albania.