Skopje, 26 February 2024 (MIA) - First Deputy PM for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj says the country hasn't notified anyone that the passports are not valid but simply the Prespa Agreement five-year deadlines have entered into force.

"We should see things from the citizens' perspective. The law (on extending the passports' validity) would only bring further insecurity and problems at borders. As long as we do not have any notification from any EU member-state that the old passports can be used for travel, citizens can face problems at any border crossing. Why put citizens into an unpleasant situation, not knowing if they would pass through a border crossing or not," Deputy PM Marichikj told Telma.

He adds that a travel document issued by diplomatic offices abroad is the safest way to return to the country.

"Based on the available statistics, we have issued about 1,350,000 passports until now, with 300,000 new passport booklets already in the country, which will secure a continued pace of issuance by June. A new batch of about 300,000 booklets is set to come in June, meaning that about 1.9 million passports are to be issued by September. In fact, this is roughly the same number of citizens living in the country, but not everyone is interested in having a passport," says Marichikj.