On the initiative of the mayors of the three Municipalities from the three countries sharing Megali Prespa, Mr Panagiotis Paschalidis (Municipality of Prespa), Mr Jovan Tozievski (Municipality of Resen), Mr Pali Kolefski (Municipality of Pustec), simultaneous cleanings were carried out on the beaches of Megali Prespa and on the three banks of the lake with main slogan “Trash free Prespa!”, “Prespa without garbage!”.
The three Municipalities have long-standing cooperation in bilateral or multilateral actions and programs for the protection of the environment and the sustainable development of the cross-border area of Prespa, either through their own initiatives or within the framework of European programs or of course the quadripartite transnational cooperation for the Prespa Park, the first and, so far only, cross-border protected area in the Balkans. It started on a Greek initiative in 2000 and continues, with the main milestone being the first meeting of the bodies of the trans-border Park, with representatives from the three countries and the European Union, which took place in June, in the community of Pyli, Prespa Municipality.
In the recent action, hundreds of volunteers from the three countries cleaned over 100 kilometers of coastline, one of the largest and oldest lakes in the Balkans and Europe.At the same time, a meeting was held among the three Mayors to discuss the common experiences from the actions, but also the issues concerning the residents of the three Municipalities, in particular, the extremely worrying drop in the lake level, the prospects for the tourism development in the area of Prespa, the border crossings, cooperation on civil protection, etc.Cross-border clean-up actions are supported by the corresponding cross-border cooperation programs of the European Union, Interreg-IPA CBC Greece – Republic of North Macedonia, and Interreg-IPA CBC Greece – Albania.On the Greek Side, the participating agencies, apart from the Municipality of Prespa, include the Prespa Park Management Unit, the Prespa Protection Society, the Association of Tourist and Related Activities of the Municipality of Prespa, the Prespa Cultural Triangle, the Lygistes Cultural Association and many volunteers.