In 2002, Macedonia settled decentralization as a Constitutional objective for the benefits of the 85 municipalities of the country. Since 2003, the Swiss cooperation and development agency (SDC) has supported the Macedonian association of local authorities (ZELS).

A second phase of this support started in 2007. Since this date, FEDRE has been actively associated to the process by bringing its expertise. This phase, coming to an end on 30th June 2011, focused on the institutional development of ZELS, and favoured, through this association, inter-municipal cooperation in the field of environment, communication and IT, as well as inter-ethnic understanding.

In this frame, FEDRE accomplished several missions, of at least one week each, to Skopje, the capital of the country.

Progress made being judged encouraging enough, SDC is planning a third phase of support to ZELS, from July 2011 till the end of 2015.