Today in Sofia, the Macedonian government delegation consisting of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs, Bojan Maricik, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Good Governance Policies, Slavica Grkovska, the Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Naser Nuredini, the Minister of Information Society and Administration, Admir Aliti and the General Manager of Posts of Northern Macedonia, Jani Makraduli, in a positive atmosphere, had a productive meeting with colleagues from the Bulgarian Government, where they discussed current activities and subsequent joint projects in the areas of good governance, environment, digital transformation and rule of law.

At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Maricik expressed his satisfaction with the communication with his Bulgarian counterparts and said that he expects proposals and ideas that will give concrete results, for the benefit of citizens on both sides of the border and for our European integration process.

- Direct communication and sectoral cooperation is a great way to deepen the relations. Cooperation through exchange of experiences and good practices in areas key to our European integration process, such as the rule of law, green agenda and digital transformation, which are extremely important to us. Therefore, I expect projects that will add value in the implementation of reforms, said Deputy Prime Minister Maricik.

In the discussion on good governance policies, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Slavica Grkovska and her Bulgarian counterpart Kalina Konstantinova welcomed the excellent start of cooperation in this wide area. Grkovska expressed gratitude to the Bulgarian side for sharing experiences from the Good Governance Operational Program, which opens a wide field for cooperation between the two countries in the medium and long term. The two sides also defined a series of activities that will follow in the coming period with a special focus on strengthening cooperation with the civil society sector, capacity building of public administration and exchanges and sharing experiences in prevention and fight against corruption.

The Minister of Information Society and Administration, Aliti, together with his Bulgarian counterpart Bozhidar Bozhanov, Minister of Electronic Government of the Republic of Bulgaria, agreed within a certain period of time that the two institutions will start cooperating and exchanging experiences in order to develop cross-border electronic services for citizens and joint recognition of confidential services and electronic identification.

During the meeting, the Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Naser Nuredini, together with the Bulgarian counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policy and Minister of Environment and Waters of the Republic of Bulgaria, Borislav Sandov, signed a two-year Program for Implementation of the Cooperation Agreement between the two Ministries in the field of environment and water management, signed in 2019. Minister Nuredini stressed that the signing of the Program confirms the joint efforts to improve bilateral cooperation between the two countries through the implementation of specific activities for better environmental protection and active involvement in the implementation of joint initiatives.

Following the efforts of the two governments, for increased dynamics of cooperation and implementation of joint projects, the directors of the two postal administrations signed a Memorandum of Understanding for postal cooperation between Bulgarian Posts EAD and AD "Post of North Macedonia", which opens a new page in the relations between the two postal administrations. The activities that will result from this Memorandum, in the future, will provide better and more efficient postal services to the citizens and the business community of both countries.

- We are assured that everyone within their institutions, with their own initiative and responsibility, can contribute to opening their page in the relations between the two countries, by facilitating communication between citizens and businesses, said at the meeting Director Makraduli, emphasizing that although today the Memorandum is signed, the two postal administrations have already undertaken activities for practical implementation.

The next meeting of the working group for European cooperation - green transition, digital transformation and rule of law will be held in early April in Skopje.