Minister of Local Self-Government Nevzat Bejta and the Vice-President of France's Lower Normandy region, Corinne Feret, signed Wednesday in Skopje an agreement for resuming the bilateral cooperation.

Thus far Macedonia and the Lower Normandy have been cooperating in the spheres of IT and media, cultural heritage inventory, citizenship, youth, tourism, culture and agriculture. Under the new agreement, the cooperation will also cover the human rights.

Bejta said Macedonia and Lower Normandy signed the first cooperation agreement in October of 2009.

The cooperation will enable Macedonia to learn from French experience with power decentralization process, which is to bring benefit to the state and its citizens, Bejta said.

Macedonia's main goal is to complete the decentralization process, Bejta said. He pointed out that the 2007 Law of Equitable Regional Development created eight regions in the country, which "I believe will develop as the French ones, in particular as Lower Normandy."

"We shall set up a working group to cooperate with the Lower Normandy administration. Our goal is for Macedonia to become a full-fledged EU member," Bejta said.

Feret said she was pleased with the development of of Macedonia-Lower Normandy cooperation.

"The cooperation agreement covers numerous activities, especially in regard to the power decentralization process, which have been conducted together with you for the benefit of Macedonia's citizens," Feret said.

Several Macedonian and Lower Normandy municipalities are cooperating under the town twinning concept.