The Ohrid region got off the hook again. At the 48th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, held in Busan, South Korea, the decision was made not to place Ohrid on the list of World Heritage in Danger - but to give it a five-year deadline to sort out the chaos on the shore. So, not the blacklist. But not a clean conscience either.

Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski called this a “significant diplomatic success”. And indeed, diplomatically it is a success - the state has once again convinced an international body that it will mend its ways. The problem is that we've been hearing the promise to mend for decades, while the concrete on Ohrid's shore keeps rising.

The numbers speak louder than any press release. According to a report by the State Audit Office, Ohrid has 4,847 illegal structures, hotels included. For these, 456 demolition orders have been issued. Executed - not one. Not one. That is the equation that explains the whole situation: there is a law, there are orders, but there are no bulldozers.

Mucunski said illegal buildings “not only in Ohrid” must be removed in a proper and lawful manner. Nice words. But the lawful manner existed all along, and yet 456 orders sit in a drawer. The question isn't whether the authorities know what to do - the plan is clear. The question is who will raise the first bulldozer, and over whose weekend house.

UNESCO's main objections remained the same as in previous years: uncontrolled urbanisation, pollution of the lake, an inefficient sewage collector system, delays in infrastructure projects and weak coordination among institutions. A progress report is due by February 1, 2027, and the Strategic Plan for rehabilitation runs until 2030.

Five years sounds like a long deadline. But if not a single illegal building was torn down over the past decades, why would the next five be any different? UNESCO gave us time. It did not give us the will - that has to come from home. And at home, by the lake, summer still runs the old way: concessions, bars and concrete where there should be only water and reeds.