Waste - National Responses (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

Transposition of the EU acquis for waste management into national legislation is one of the main tasks and goals in the context of the establishment of an integrated and sustainable waste management system. In general, the legislation of relevance for waste management aimed at overcoming the current state and establishing integrated and self-sustainable waste management system is formulated in:

• the Law on Environment (Official Gazette no. 53/05, 81/05, 24/07), regulating the basic issues such as environmental permits, environmental impact assessment procedure, GHG emissions, etc.;
• the Law on Waste Management (Official Gazette no. 68/04, 71/04, 107/07, 102/08, 134/08);
• the National Environmental Action Plans (NEAP 1996/2006);
• the Strategy for Waste Management (2008-2020);
• the National Waste Management Plan (2009-2015);

• detailed procedures concerning different waste types specified in bylaws.

The Law on Waste Management, as the basic legal act, stipulates the overall rules. However, it does not regulate the management of waste originating from mining, which is subject to regulation by the Law on Mineral Resources (Official Gazette no. 24/07), and only partially regulates waste from veterinary activities. It does not include obligations posed by the Framework Waste Directive (2006/12/ЕC) and Hazardous Waste Directive (91/689/ЕЕC) (National Waste Management Plan [2009-2015], 2009).

The Law on Waste Management establishes the legal basis for adoption of secondary legislation to regulate specific issues in the practice of waste management at all levels.

Cross-border movement of hazardous waste is regulated by the Law on Ratification of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Storage (Official Gazette no. 49/97).

Apart from the common legislation on waste streams and management operations, two regulations that are not part of the transposition process will be adopted: Regulation on waste transport (1013/2006) and Regulation (EC1774/2002) specifying health regulations for animal by-products not intended for human consumption.

The early transposition of the Directive on environmental liability (2004/35/EC) and adoption of national regulations on soil quality and contamination will provide the legal basis necessary to initiate negotiations related to activities aimed at hot-spot remediation (National Waste Management Plan (2009-2015) of the Republic of Macedonia, 2009).