Prishtina, 12.05.2016
– The Republic
of Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia must intensify cooperation in areas of
common interest such as energy, infrastructure and others that fall within regional
cooperation. This was said today by the Minister of Economic Development of
Kosovo, Blerand Stavileci and Minister of Economy of Macedonia, Driton Kuqi,
during a joint press conference in Prishtina.

Minister Stavileci said that he and his
Macedonian counterpart agreed that the level of cooperation must be raised to
another level, based on the fact that there have been several mutual agreements
signed between our countries.

“We would like to change the direction
in the positive sense, especially in terms of the pace of development, in other
words, to materialize them and start concrete activities and projects,”
said Stavileci.

He said that knowing the fact that both
countries are partners in all regional initiatives, including those that arise
from the Berlin process – within whose agenda is the transport network in the
Western Balkan states and inter-connectivity in the field of energy – this cooperation
must be taken further.

“In this context, it is very important
for the Eastern European countries, especially those which are our neighbors,
to have projects with which we would link better with one another, and with
which we would link with other platforms, especially in terms of the regional market,”
said Stavileci, using as a reference the positive cooperation in these areas between
Kosovo and Albania.

The head of MED said that the practice of cooperation
with Albania, which includes an energy highway of 400 kV as well as projects
that will have an impact on future developments in the common markets, can be sought
out as well with the Republic of Macedonia, in order to create an integrated
regional market.

“Our respective delegations have pledged
to renew these previous ideas and see how we could advance them in order to
connect our countries in terms of physical infrastructure but also in terms of construction
of energy capacities, with which we can complement one another, and with which we
influence the security of supply, not only for Kosovo and Macedonia, but also for
other countries,” said Stavileci, adding that this will give a new breathing to both countries.

For his part, Minister of Economy of
Macedonia, Driton Kuqi said the two countries have already set a solid basis
for the establishment of new cooperation projects in the interest of citizens
of both countries.

“During the meeting they discussed
about the current joint energy projects such as the second Macedonia-Kosovo
inter-connection of 400 kV, where now both countries receive authenticity research
as well as there has been an Operating Agreement was signed between MEPSO and
KOSTT which regulates systems interconnection cooperation between Republic of
Macedonia and Republic of Kosovo”, he added.

Kuqi further said that he and his colleague
Stavileci agreed on the importance of developing gas-transmission systems for
the two countries, since according to the feasibility studies for the gas-transmission
system in Macedonia, among the 6 additional interconnection potentials projected
is the inter-connection with Kosovo which will add more security of energy supply.

According to him, cooperation is done on
the basis of 28 agreements signed between the two countries, however, this
cooperation is expected to be made more concrete by the working groups of the
two ministries.