Strengthening environmental law enforcement capacities in North Macedonia

North Macedonia is investing significant efforts to align its legislation and systems with the EU environmental and climate acquis and policies. The country is committed to address the recommendations included in the European Commission's North Macedonia 2022 Report, as well as to implement the Paris Agreement by developing a comprehensive strategy on climate action in line with the EU 2030 framework.

Compliance with environmental legislation in North Macedonia is one of the key preconditions in the EU pre-accession negotiations. In this regard, the Law on Environmental Inspection in North Macedonia was adopted by the Parliament on 19 April 2022.

This twinning project represents the follow-up of a twinning project "Strengthening application of and compliance with the EU environmental legal framework in Macedonia", which strengthened the administrative capacity for the implementation of environmental legislation, improved the effectiveness of the environmental enforcement system and also improved the Management Information and Reporting System (MIRS).

However, capacities, both at central and local level, are still insufficient for effective implementation of inspection tasks in line with the EU environmental acquis.

This project will provide a comprehensive response to the need to strengthen the capacities of environmental inspection in order to carry out the control and surveillance of the different legal obligations in environmental matters. To this end, the institutions of the partner country will be accompanied in the technical, administrative and organisational improvements necessary to improve environmental inspections and the control of compliance with the conditions established in the authorisations issued.

Specifically, it will promote

• A regulatory framework and procedures aligned with the administrative authority.
• Good coordination with procedures such as: authorisation, control, monitoring, reporting, public information, enforcement, prosecution and with other administrative bodies and administrations.
• The use of a wide range of data shared by many different administrative units and stakeholders.