At today's meeting, the Bulgarian government decided to declare the border crossing to Macedonia "Strumjani-Berovo" as a national object and will build the road Strumjani - Mikrevo - Razdol - Klepalo - border with North Macedonia, Bulgarian media reported.

– This is symbolic and shows the attitude of the state towards infrastructure development. In addition, the declaration of a national facility facilitates the procedures related to the law on territorial planning, approval of detailed development plans, expropriation and others so as not to delay the development of this infrastructure facility, said the Bulgarian Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Ivan Shishkov.

According to him, this crossing will be of a regional nature and no heavy goods vehicles will pass through it, but only passenger and cargo vehicles with a total technically permissible maximum weight of up to 3,5 tons.

Shishkov reminded that there is an agreement between the two countries for the construction of the Klepalo border crossing since 1999. Macedonia built the road to the border crossing a long time ago, and even made its own crossing. For more than a decade, the Macedonian side has been insisting that Bulgaria fulfill its obligations from the agreement signed more than 20 years ago, but this is not happening. The latest promise was that the crossing would be ready this year, but that is unlikely to happen.

The project for the construction of the border post is financed within the framework of the program Interreg VI-A IPP Bulgaria - North Macedonia 2021 - 2027 and has a total value of 9 million euros. The main goal of the project is to improve connectivity in the region and stimulate economic growth by facilitating the movement of people and goods, strengthening communication links, including the connection to transport corridors 4 and 8.

The contractor for the design and construction of the Bulgarian road leading to the new border crossing is the "Road Infrastructure" agency.