The 1st meeting of the Monitoring Committee was held under the Interreg VI-A IPA Bulgaria - North Macedonia Programme 2021-2027

On 6^th of December 2022, the 1^st session of the Monitoring Committee was held in Strumica under the Interreg VI-A  IPA Bulgaria - North Macedonia Programme 2021-2027. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Zoran Dimitrovski, Deputy Minister of Local Self-Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and co-chaired by Mrs. Desislava Georgieva, Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Mr. Risto Penov, Minister of Local Self-Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Kostadin Kostadinov, Mayor of the Municipality of Strumica and Mrs. Gabi Hagmuller, representative of the European Commission, addressed the attendees.

During the meeting, the members of the Monitoring Committee approved the Guidelines for applicants for the strategic project from the program for the preparation and construction of the border crossing Strumyani - Berovo. The allocated funds for this new border crossing are over 9 million euros, and the beneficiaries will be the Blagoevgrad Regional Administration and the Customs Administration of North Macedonia.

The previous day, the founding meeting of the Strategic Board of the Territorial Strategy under Priority 3 "Integrated Development of the Cross-Border Region" was held, at which the Territorial Strategy was approved and the two co-chairperson of the board were elected - Ilko Stoyanov, Mayor of Municipality of Blagoevgrad and Andrea Zlatkovska, Coordinator at the Center for development of the East planning region.