Skopje, 28 July 2023 (MIA) – The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European affairs, Bojan Marichikj, regarding the investigations of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) over the abuse of European funds concerning 17 entities in the country, said Friday it is important to determine the entities in question and urged that the cases are fully cleared up.

“In fact, in our system this is a separate crime – embezzlement or abuse of European funds, and there were many other countries in the region who had more cases – Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia had issues at certain stages, but they overcame them and used the funds both from IPA and the structural funds,” said Marichikj at a media briefing Friday.

The Deputy PM added that the Secretariat for European Affairs meets with the EU Delegation once a week over the IPA funds, while also communicating daily about everything that is necessary, because, he said, “our goal is for each euro to be used properly, and as intended.”