Skopje, 18 December 2025 (MIA) - Skopje Mayor and ZELS president Orce Gjorgjievski said Thursday that he and his fellow mayors are discussing measures to deal with air pollution. He added that a meeting on this topic will be held before the end of the calendar year, together with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning. 

Gjorgjievski noted that inspection controls are ongoing. "For the City of Skopje, feel free to request information from the Inspection Sector on how many times we have acted in the past period against all those potential polluters in the capital, even though we don't do it pompously in public. All fellow mayors should do the same. Furthermore, it is a process that we should resolve in several stages," Gjorgjievski said in response to a reporter's question after the constitutive session of the ZELS General Assembly.  

He pointed out that besides Prime Minister Mickoski, in the election campaign he pledged construction of gas power plants in Skopje and serious work is under way in that direction.  

"That is something that cannot be done overnight. We are working on it. Alternative fuels for household heating and next year we should receive new electric buses as support from the Government, truly functional transportation for citizens so that cars are used as little as possible. That would be a set of measures that should give real results in the long-term. But it should not come down to just an alleged declarative commitment, which gives no results to this day. Skopje, or any other city, is not polluted only today. It has been polluted for 30 years, but it has always been just declarative commitments and no improvement of the situation. My child and I also live here and breathe the same air, like all our fellow citizens, but unfortunately no one has done anything concrete in the past. We are a generation that I believe will do that," said Gjorgjievski. 

He added that the City of Skopje will officially announce initial measures soon, which will also serve as guidelines for action on this issue.

According to him, the people of Skopje deserve appropriate conditions in the capital, as do all residents in the country.

"It is time to put declarative commitments aside and take concrete measures. We cannot resolve the issue overnight," Gjorgjievski said.

Photo and video: MIA