Kochani, 20 April 2024 (MIA) — We will continue to work on strengthening domestic companies' competitiveness and in partnership with them, continue improving the domestic economy with public investments of EUR 3.5 billion, also funding a just energy transition and energy independence, said Sanja Lukarevska, head of the SDSM and Coalition for European Future list of MP candidates from the Third Electoral District, MIA's Kochani correspondent reports.

"During our next term," Lukarevska said, "we will increase domestic electricity production by 70 percent. This way the state will achieve energy independence and independently meet 100 percent of its own electricity needs, mainly from gas and clean renewable sources."

"We said 'forever no' to harmful small hydropower plants and all fossil technologies that pollute our air and soil," she continued, adding that this was important for the countryss stability and European future.

"Over the next 25 years, more than 20,000 households will be provided with green energy. We want to create a partnership in building a European future, and we see citizens and companies as our partners and allies.

"We will stay together and solve the challenges that will be neither few nor easy, because the European agenda is demanding. It requires everyone's involvement, but it is the best and most efficient way forward," Lukarevska said. mr/