Green ’Work Week’ in Skopje

A Western Balkans Green Centre delegation visited Skopje from 15-18 November 2022.

On the 16th of November 2022, the 4th Hungarian-Macedonian Joint Economic Committee plenary meeting was held - co-chaired by Péter Sztáray, State-Security Policy and Energy Security of the MFA - where our colleague Orsolya Nagy had the opportunity to make a short presentation and to introduce the WBGC programme. Kaja Sukova, State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, chaired the meeting from the North Macedonian side. Through our proposed amendment, cooperation on climate change was added to the minutes of the Joint Economic Committee.

On November 17, the WBGC team visited the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, where we had a meeting with Arsim Fidani, Chief of Cabinet and the Heads of Department responsible for Spatial Planning, Waste Management, Water Management, Environment and EU Affairs.The meeting was also attended by Economic and Commercial Attache of the Embassy of Hungary in Skopje. The Green Center introduced the WBGC program and gave information about the next call for proposal, which included the presentation of the Northern Macedonia projects and the CARI programme as well.

On November 18, the first regional event “Balkan Economic Forum 2022” took place in Skopje, where Gabor Szántó, head of the WBGC participated as a speaker in the panel "Balkan Prospects for Faster Energy Transition", together with representatives of the EU Energy Commission (DG ENER), EBRD, ERSTE Group, North Macedonia Chamber of Commerce and Industry.The hybrid event was opened by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi, with an online address by EU Commission Vice-President Dubravka Suica and video message by Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Policy, Oliver Varhelyi.  At the end of the conference, we signed a cooperation agreement with the organisers, the Balkan Economic Forum.