Joint border control in Blace expected to begin in April

Northern Macedonia's Minister of Internal Affairs Panche Toshkovski has announced that in April of this year, the functioning of the joint border control system, known as the “One Stop Shop”, at the point of Blace, connecting northern Macedonia with Kosovo.

According to Toshkovski, this system will simplify border procedures, allowing citizens of the two countries to be controlled by a single customs officer, reducing the waiting time “and facilitating the crossing of the border between the two states”.

“Under a joint platform ʹcloudʹ, data is shared between the two respective ministries in order to enable the entry of Kosovo citizens into northern Macedonia and vice versa, only through consisting by a police official”, Toshkovski said.

“I hope it ends next month and later, during the month of April, we will begin with the official deployment of”, he added.

Those statements were made Friday, during a visit to the Blace border checkpoint, along with the first Deputy Prime Minister, Izet Medzi, and his Kosovo counterpart, Interior Affairs Minister Jelal Svecla.

Svechla, on the other hand, expressed expectations that the testing phase will be completed as soon as possible.

For the citizens of both countries, it is very important that the transition be fast. It's for state bodies to make them safer. Of course, we are using the latest achievements of technology to reduce bureaucracy, but not at the expense of security, but to the benefit of the citizens' time”, Svechla said.

The border checkpoint in Blace has recently faced long columns on both sides of the border. The process of establishing joint border points was launched in June 2024. At the same point, on February 15th, another citizen from Kosovo was arrested, under an international arrest sheet issued by Serbia through INTERPOL.

Serbia's Interior Minister, Ivica Dacic, said the suspect was arrested under suspicion of war crimes in Kosovo in 1999.

In this case, Northern Macedonia Deputy Prime Minister Izet Mexhidi explained that measures are being taken for “ensure that such cases are handled in line with legal procedures and international standards”.

When there are such requests in INTERPOL from Serbia, states in the region, European states, ignore them because special courts have been formed, and the 1999 period -- 1999 -- 2000 -- is a period that does not enter other times”, Medzi said.

Media in northern Macedonia reported that the detainee was former Kosovo Liberation Army soldier (UÇK) from Ferizaj, but Mexhit dismissed these reports.

It is evident that the state of Serbia misuses participation in INTERPOL, places inappropriate lists, often even updates them on the basis of their daily interests. There has been an arrest of a Kosovo citizen, it is not a former soldier because he was not in Kosovo at that time, but has been in Germany, but we are in contact with organs so soon the case will be cleared and the citizen is released”, Medzit told the newspaper News, in northern Macedonia.

For the arrest of 55-year-old Kosovo with initials E.B., the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) reacted. The party called on the government to review the practice of implementing Serbia's issued warrants.

Last year, authorities in northern Macedonia detained another former KLA soldier, Blerim Ramadani, also based on a warrant issued by Serbia.

Ramadani, who is accused by Serbian war crimes authorities in the Nerodime region in 1999, managed to flee from the home of his relatives in northern Macedonia, where the court in Skopje was ordered to stay until 16 August, prompting reactions from Serbia.

Daciq then named it “scandalous” the escape from Ramadan's domestic arrest.

Macedonian Prime Minister Hristian Mickoski, during an official visit to Pristina on November 18th, had indicated that Skopje would not continue to implement the warrants issued by Serbia through INTERPOL.

When asked about Serbia's demands for the arrest of former KLA members, Mickoski had said that “anyone who does not violate his country's” is “welcomed” in northern Macedonia.

However, later, Justice Minister Igor Filkov stressed that Mickoski's statements were “misunderstanding”, and that the arrests issued by INTERPOL at Serbia's request would continue to be applicable in northern Macedonia. / REL