This awareness seminar on the IPA cross-border programmes was organized in the premises of the City Hall in Struga on October 24^th 2007. The seminar was organized in close cooperation of the Ministry of Local Self Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Municipality of Struga and the UNDP-funded Regional Development Agency from Struga.

Representatives of about 150 different institutions (Municipalities, NGOs, Chambers of Commerce, education institutions, etc.) from the eligible reagion were invited and 56 persons participated, including 5 participants from Albania, from the towns of Pogradec and Korca, which made this event a cross-border seminar. The event was well covered by the local and national media (TV, newspapers and radio).

Objective:

The objective of this awareness meeting was to familiarize the potential applicants in the Bitola region with the cross-border programme between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania and with the main characteristics of a cross-border project.

More specifically, the objective of the awareness seminar was to help potential applicants to start thinking about projects ideas, preparation of projects and search of relevant partners.

The meeting was officially opened by Mr. Gajo Ramadani, First Secretary of the Cabinet of the Minister of Local Self-Government, Mr. Vladislav Zupan from the Municipality of Struga and Remy Reymann from CBIB Skopje.

After the official opening four presentations were delivered:

• Introduction to IPA and IPA Component II, presented by Saska Mamutcevska from Ministry of Local Self Government;
• The cross-border programme between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania (eligible area, priorities, measures and potential operations, beneficiaries, indicative financial allocations) presented by Sali Emruli from Ministry of Local Self Government;
• What is a cross-border project (type of projects, type of partners, budget and eligible costs, call for proposal) presented by Remy Reymann from CBIB;
• Best practices in cross-border cooperation and CBIB next activities, presented by Jasminka Taseva Jankovic from CBIB.

The presentations were followed by questions and answers.

Conclusions and Lessons Learned:

The organizers consider this event a full success (number of participants, quality of the questions…).

Lessons learned:

• The audience and the great interest of the participants show that IPA CBC raises a lot of expectations in the region. Information is a high demand and it is certainly not too early to organize such events;
• When an awareness meeting or info day is organised close to the border, as it was the case in Struga, it is also good to invite Albanian potential applicants (and to find an efficient way to send invitations in Albania). The meeting was followed by “partnership discussion”. As an example, the representatives from Korca’s hospital and municipality of Struga started to define a cross-border project aiming at preventing breast cancer in the border region;
• The presence of a procurement expert from the EAR or the EC delegation in awareness meetings would be highly appreciated (many technical issues raised).