On 26 January, an MoU for a reconstruction of a bicycle lane in Skopje was signed by Mr. Trifun Kostovski, mayor of the City of Skopje, d-r. Nexhati Jakupi, Minister of Environment, and Mr. Vladimir Karcicki, President of the NGO Proaktiva, at the premises of the City of Skopje. The Netherlands Embassy in Macedonia is co-funding this activity, which is a follow-up of the Bicycle Master Plan for the City of Skopje, prepared in 2008, also with Dutch funds.

The City of Skopje has set the revitalization of its bicycle lanes as one of its priorities, in cooperation with the civil sector and the Ministry of Environment. The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Skopje has also funded the reconstruction of part of the existing bicycle lanes in the city. The new part of the still embryonic network of bicycle lances in the city that the Netherlands Embassy is supporting goes through Aerodrom, a densely populated modern area of the city, with a significant percentage of young population. The goal of the activity is to further promote the use of bicycle as a cheap, efficient and environmentally friendly means of transport. 

Bicycles are a trademark of the Dutch culture, and the Netherlands Embassy in Skopje is actively promoting cycling in Macedonia. As Ambassador Simone Filippini said in her address at the signing of the MoU, every Dutch person cycles an average of 3 kilometres per day, and there are 15,000 kilometres of bicycle lanes and 18 million bicycles in the Netherlands. On the occasion of Car Free Day in 2008, Ambassador Filippini presented the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski with a bicycle as a symbolic gesture of asking him to pledge his support to biking as a healthy lifestyle and asking his leadership in this respect.

Every year, there are almost 1,4 million bikes that are sold in the Netherlands, made by some of the biggest Dutch producers of bicycles such as The Fietsfabriek ( www.fietsfabriek.nl) and Gazelle ( www.gazelle.nl).