The closing event of the Twinning project

On January 16, 2025, the Final Event was held of the EU Twinning Project “Support in the Implementation of the Waste Management Legislation and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme”

The opening was marked by keynote addresses by H.E. András Klein, Ambassador of Hungary and H.E. Mag. Martin Pammer, Ambassador of Austria, together with an address by Mr. Steffen Hudolin, Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Delegation and Dr. Krisztina Wegner, the Project Resident Twinning Advisor. The speakers will provide valuable insight into the significance and the impact of this project, as well as its outcome and deliverables.

The Project was tasked with delivering legislative amendments (laws and secondary legislation) so that the extended producer responsibility system in North Macedonia would ensure appropriate treatment of all special waste streams (packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, accumulators and batteries, as well as textiles, tires, ELVs and oils), thus achieving the highest possible separate collection of unsorted municipal solid waste.

The Project activities were fully focused fully on creating the necessary legislative, institutional, infrastructural and IT prerequisites necessary for establishing an independent legal entity in the national system, which will ensure and coordinate all the operations of stakeholders involved in the country’s EPR system. This is a long-awaited intervention aimed at rectifying the weaknesses in the system, contributing to a cleaner environment, full implementation of the circular economy, and increased and reliable financing of the extended producer responsibility for the waste which all entities in the system generate.

This independent body, under the working title of “Producer Balancing Body” (PBB), will strive to enable level playing field for producers, traders, waste collectors and waste treatment facilities, helping the proper supervision and enforcement of all pertinent legislative provisions, at the same time assuring high level of transparency of the process. The project experts involved in our 3 components fully designed and developed the normative, operational and IT elements, documents, legislative acts and other deliverables needed for the full functioning of the system. This will help develop a more professional, accountable and efficient EPR system, bringing North Macedonia closer to the EU acquis, assuring higher quality of life and standards closer to those of the EU-member states.

This Project was implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of North Macedonia, in partnership with, the Blue Planet Climate Protection Foundation from Hungary, as the Lead partner, and the Federal Environment Agency of Austria as the Junior partner, are finalizing the implementation of this Twinning Project on February 28th, after 27 months of implementation.