Skopje – MARRI Regional Centre organized the traditional presentation of annual results and future plans – MARRI Friends Meeting, at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia. The event was attended by representatives of Diplomatic Corps, MARRI Partners and Donors and representatives of national institutions among which the Ambassador of Republic of Albania H.E. Fatos Reka, Ambassador of Czech Republic H.E. Miroslav Toman, Ambassador of Hungary H.E. Laszlo Istvan Dux; representatives of Embassies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo*, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America; representatives of international organizations such European Union Delegation in Skopje, OSCE, UNHCR, IOM, ICMPD, GIZ as well as representatives of the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia.
The Minister of Interior of the Republic of Macedonia, Oliver Spasovski opened the event affirming that it is a joint and long-term commitment of all to recognize MARRI Regional Center as a regional incubator of ideas and implementing agency for activities of common interest for MARRI Participants, as well as a point where the capacities are united with aim to create stability and security for the citizens of the region. He stressed also that, in spite of the fact that there are several regional organizations that work together to promote certain segments of the social life, only MARRI has the core mandate to deal with issues related to asylum, refugees, but above all migration. As the migration has risen to the top of the agendas of many European and international organizations and represents central topic in many conferences and high-level meetings, he stressed the importance of providing maximum support to MARRI as a way to contribute to the creation of common regional policies demonstrating that the region is able to cope with future challenges.
Recalling the situation from a few years ago, when the main challenge was to deal with a large wave of mixed migrant flows, the Minster said that even though it cannot be predicted what will happen in the time to come, the region should use this period of calm to analyze the previous challenges and responses and further develop regional capacities, in order to better coordinate future joint activities, when needed.
Regarding the cooperation in MARRI format, he said that it is very important capacitate MARRI Regional Center to implement larger-scale projects, able to perform as regional hub before donors for the projects that the Participants themselves recognized as common priority.
Concerning the ongoing reform of MARRI, the Minister reminded that that the process of change is a continuous and an inevitable part of every institution and that this process is difficult to implement. In case of MARRI, the reform process is additionally demanding, as the principle is to find common denominator for the interests of its six Participants.
On behalf of Albanian Presidency-in-Office, MARRI Committee Member Antonela Dhimolea presented the priorities and achievements of the Albanian Presidency in Office (June 2017 -June 2018) while MARRI RC Director Tamara Mugosa presented MARRI projects and activities between two MARRI Friends Meetings. The presentation of the RCD can be found here.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence