The Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, the Minister of the Interior Oliver Spasovski and the Minister of Transport and Communications Blagoj Bochvarski gave a joint press conference and expressed their condolences to the families and relatives of the victims who were killed in the tragic accident which happened in Bulgaria while presenting information for the accident that were known so far and the activities that are to be undertaken.
At the press conference Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani underlined that they have established several direct lines of cooperation with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and that several experience diplomats and consular representatives from various directorates are involved, thus covering all needs for coordination of the institutions and the diplomatic activity of the Ministry.
Moreover, Osmani said that they have immediately agreed on amendments in the COVID protocols with Bulgaria, thus enabling the entrance of all close relatives of the victims and their travel to Sofia, without presenting any COVID-19 related documents. Furthermore, he said that there is a protocol for the use of the SOS telephone in the MFA to meet the large number of requests of the citizens for their friends and relatives.
Two experience diplomats have been sent to the Embassy in Sofia, as reinforcement of the human resources, to alleviate the coordination of the activities between the institutions in Skopje and Sofia which, after the identification process, will prepare and organize the procedure for transport of the victim’s remains.
The Minister of the Interior, Oliver Spasovski, said that together with his Bulgarian colleague Rashkov, they have agreed on joint coordination of representatives from the Ministry of the Interior from the uniformed and traffic police, as well as from the Department for forensic technical investigations with their Bulgarian colleagues.
Spasovski added that beside the MoI’s representatives, representatives of several professional departments from our country have been sent to Bulgaria to offer their expertise, as well as representatives from our Prosecutor’s Office who will provide the required documents for their colleagues in the Bulgarian Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The Minister of the Interior, Oliver Spasovski, further said that they expect fast and comprehensive response of the authorities and that by cooperation with Bulgaria, we will soon have answers to all questions regarding this tragedy. Moreover, he informed that in the domain of the data in the MoI, the last inspection for the technical condition of the bus was performed on October 5th this year.
The Minister of Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bochvarski, informed that pursuant to the criteria for license to perform international free transport of passengers, the operator “Besa trans” met all the criteria and was issued a license to perform international free transport of passengers valid from August 8th, 2018, until August 8th, 2022, i.e., had a valid license for international transport of passengers.
Bochvarski clarified that the operator was registered in the system of the Ministry of Transport and Communications with 4 vehicles which possess license for transport, but after they received information from the Ministry of the Interior, it was concluded that this bus was not reported by the operator pursuant to Article 11 paragraph 5 of the Law on Transport in Road Traffic and that is the reason why the vehicle was not found in the electronic database of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The Minister of Transport and communications further said that pursuant to the information so far, the operator performed international transport without a statement from the license on the given vehicle and pursuant to Article 12 paragraph 2 line 1 of the Law on Transport in Road Traffic, a procedure is initiated for withdrawal of the license of the operator and that at today’s session the Government assigned the National Inspectorate for Transport to conduct extraordinary inspection of the company “Besa Trans”.
