On July 26 and 27, 2022 seminars were conducted at the Ministry of Environment and Water under the project “Strengthening the institutional and administrative capacity for negotiations under Chapter 27 ‘Environment’ of the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning of North Macedonia and its regional structures within the process of EU accession” financed by Bulgarian Development Assistance funds.

The start of the project was announced at the beginning of April in Skopje by the Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policies and Minister of Environment and Water Borislav Sandov and the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of North Macedonia Naser Nuredini.

Project activities will contribute to attaining Bulgarian and EU goals in the region of the Western Balkans in the short and long term, including the constructive implementation of the commitments made by our country within the framework of its first Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018.

The July 26 workshop covered the topic of water management, including transboundary coordination. The experts from the Republic of North Macedonia were presented with the process of transposition of European legislation into Bulgarian law in the sector of water, the experience gained in implementing the Water Framework Directive and the Flood Framework Directive, as well as good practices in the process of preparing plans for river basin management and flood risk management.

On July 27, the topic of horizontal legislation in the field of environment was covered, and more specifically – legal transposition. Challenges in the negotiation process and in the immediate implementation process, as well as lessons learned and results achieved, were presented. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) procedures were also explained in detail.