Struga loses at least €500,000 a year as lakeside beaches remain unregulated

Struga’s municipality is losing at least €500,000 a year because beaches along the lakeshore remain without a clear legal regime and many operators pay nothing to the local authority.

Concession contracts for the town’s beaches expired in 2016, and over the years permanent structures have been erected on nearly every available stretch of shoreline, reducing public access and municipal revenue.

Local officials demand a legal solution

"The beaches in the town of Struga are operating illegally, that is, on the black. This means that none of the entities currently running the beaches pay a fee to the Municipality of Struga. As for the part of the beaches that are under direct contract with hotel establishments, of course, they have paid a certain share. Whereas the others, whose concessions have expired, have largely not paid funds to the Municipality of Struga," said Mendi Kjura, mayor of the Municipality of Struga.

Opposition representatives say current concessionaires must be heard but laws must also be enforced. "One thing is to have financial benefits, but without state support and without consultations and joint action, we know that such a complex problem, which has accumulated over a decade and a half, cannot be solved with any solution just to secure revenues," said Mite Stefoski, advisor to VMRO-DPMNE.

Efforts to resolve the long-standing situation have so far not changed how the beaches operated this summer. The proposed Law on Beaches — which local officials said would be adopted in March this year — has not materialized, leaving the legal vacuum in place not only in Struga but also in nearby Ohrid, where each summer almost every centimetre of shoreline is covered with sunbeds and umbrellas despite a statutory obligation that 40% of the surface be free for public use. Several of the structures along the shore now operate as restaurants year-round.

Photo: press material from the event