From July 7 to August 31, Serbian police officers will patrol Ohrid alongside their Macedonian colleagues. Based on a signed Cooperation Protocol for the tourist season, uniformed officers and one officer from the criminal police of the Serbian Interior Ministry will work side by side with Macedonia's police every day.

Let's be clear right away, because news like this is easily twisted: these are not independent Serbian patrols. The Serbian officers work exclusively together with Macedonian police, within an agreed cross-border cooperation. Their main task is to help Serbian citizens vacationing in Ohrid - to ease communication with Macedonian police if tourists report a theft, lost documents, or a traffic problem.

The practice is neither new nor exclusive to Macedonia. Seasonal police exchanges like this exist across Europe - Croatia has the same arrangements with German, Czech, and Polish police on its Adriatic. The logic is simple: where there are many tourists from one country, an officer who speaks their language and knows their habits makes everyone's job easier.

Every summer Ohrid becomes a second home for thousands of guests from Serbia, so joint patrols make sense - at least on paper. The question worth asking is a different one: while we look after tourists' comfort, how well do we look after the infrastructure, the prices, and the service that greet them? An officer who speaks Serbian is a nice gesture. But a guest comes back for the lake, the cleanliness, and the treatment - and no cooperation protocol solves that.