Skopje, 2 December 2021 - Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski is taking part in the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum, organized by the Slovenian EU Presidency in Brdo near Kranj on Thursday and Friday. During three work sessions dedicated to migration, anti-terrorism and fighting organized crime, he presented North Macedonia's strategic goals and activities in the sphere of security and law enforcement.

The forum aims to start a discussion about home affairs and justice from chapters 23 and 24 from the screening for the EU pre-accession process, Spasovski's office said.

As part of the migration, asylum and external borders discussion, Spasovski pointed out that alongside the further development of the national system for integrated border management in accordance with EU concepts and standards in all forms of border work, the intense cooperation with the EU agencies Frontex – EBCGA and Europol continues in all operative and practical domains, starting from concrete operative action and cooperation, situational awareness, development and research, all the way to training and technical education.

“The basic precondition for successfully managing of this challenge is to have efficient international cooperation. We have available several platforms which can further improve cooperation in this area, and the renewed EU Action Plan can be a quality framework for the further strengthening of the joint access in the fight against migrant smuggling, which is amplified by the existence of mutual interest, as well as the capacities for further development of an all-encompassing, balanced, mutually beneficial partnership,” said Minister Spasovski, adding that in the first 9 months of 2021, 16,000 attempts of illegal migration have been halted, which is a 36.5% reduction in regards to the same period in 2020, as well as 35 cases of smuggling of 420 migrants.

In the session dedicated to the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization as a priority European security issue, Spasovski emphasized the necessity for readiness and resilience on a local, national and international level, for which the Joint Action Plan for the Fight against Terrorism was created.

“The fight against terrorism is a significant motivation for intense exchange of security-significant info with the countries of the region, as well as with our strategic partners. In practice, the operative application for secure information exchange SIENNA, which is fully operational in the MoI unit in charge of anti-terrorism, through which around 800 messages and responses were exchanged over the past year,” Spasovski said, adding that the amendments to the Law on Criminal Proceedings in regards to complex cases which include those in the area of the fight against terrorism, as well as the adoption of the Law on Critical Infrastructure are a response to the recommendations of the Joint Action Plan for the Fight against Terrorism.

As part of the working session on tackling organized crime, Spasovski said the government of North Macedonia, in accordance with the goals and priorities of the National Drug Strategy 2021-2025, will establish an Early Warning System of new psychoactive substances in 2022, in response to efforts to strengthen and develop adequate approaches to reducing the demand and supply of drugs, as well as the need for enhanced coordination between institutions and improving the reporting system.

“Our goal is to reduce the number of young people who use drugs, increase the coverage of people who use drugs through treatment and care programs, develop programs to reduce the harm of drug use, resocialization, rehabilitation and reintegration, and reduce the number of people generally using drugs, and thus reducing the demand for drugs,” said Spasovski, noting as a priority in the coming period the further development of cooperation, through participation in joint bilateral or multilateral and EMPACT operations in all areas, participation in joint investigation teams, joining new projects for operational analysis, continuous exchange of operational and strategic information and the use of Europol products. dk/ba/