Skopje, 30 September 2021 (MIA) – Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski attended on Thursday the presentation of the draft National Strategy for Integrated Border Management at the Ministry of Interior. “The draft national strategy was prepared within the IPA 2016 twinning project ‘Aligning the national systems with the EU and the Schengen requirements for border management’ which is currently being implemented in the Ministry of Interior,” the Ministry said in a press release on Thursday. Minister Spasovski said that having open and secure borders is one of the pillars of the European Union. “By introducing integrated border management as a concept for a coherent and coordinated border management system, member states ensured the safety of their borders and facilitated travel, trade, coordination between border services and strengthened international cooperation. In that regard, further development is crucial for North Macedonia and entails alignment of border management here with the European model. This would have been impossible without the support offered by the EU through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA),” Spasovski noted. Drafting the National Strategy for Integrated Border Management was one of the MoI’s key activities within the twinning project “Aligning the national systems with the EU and the Schengen requirements for border management”. “EU accession is a strategic goal for North Macedonia. In an effort to meet conditions, the Ministry of Interior and other institutions tasked with law enforcement are taking a series of serious steps with the aim of successfully embracing EU standards in all areas related to border management. Quicker harmonization of national legislation and creation of policies for integrated border management in line with EU standards is one of these crucial steps,” the Minister stressed. He thanked Slovenia and Slovakia for contributing to the drafting of the document and for supporting the MoI in the past two years, as well as the European Union for the support it’s been offering to the Ministry through IPA. “North Macedonia as member of the European family shares the same values as the rest of Europe, but also faces the same global threats and challenges. Further development of the national system for integrated border management, in line with European standards, will facilitate national border security and provide easier joint access and coordinated management of current and future threats to national and European border security, which is crucial, especially having in mind that border security is closely related to many different aspects of national security,” Spasovski underlined.