If the main principle of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is to use the data from EIONET to assess the annual compliance of the Member States and cooperating countries, and the success in the regular submission of data and information for several environmental media, the Republic of North Macedonia should be more than satisfied with the latest EIONET Core Data Flows report. Namely, Core Data Flows is a benchmark and challenge for all member states and cooperating countries with the EEA, to indicate the state of the national environmental monitoring and management systems, as well as the technical readiness for the implementation of electronic data deliveries and information to the EEA, as well as human resources – the expertise of the national network of experts from the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, but also from the Institute for Public Health, Hydrometeorology Administration, as well as other state institutions.
It is of high importance that the EEA, in this last reporting of the – EIONET Core Data Flows 2018 – ranks Republic of North Macedonia with 100% success on the list of compliance with the EEA requirements for relevant data and information from multiple environmental media.
According to the requirements, the Macedonian Environmental Information Center (MEIC) from the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning (MoEPP), reports to the EEA the relevant data on air quality, air emissions, biodiversity, climate change mitigation (national greenhouse gas inventories) and water.
It is important to mention that even though the National Air Quality Monitoring System has a serious problem with the obsolescence of equipment, in the past 2018, all the required data and information has been successfully delivered to the EEA.
This success of the MEIC and the MoEPP, is to be noted also as a benchmark for the West Balkan countries, since the Republic of North Macedonia is the first country in the region to achieve this highest score on the EIONET Core Data Flows list, and for several years in a row has been ranked higher than some of the EU member states.
This particular success has been noticed by the European Environment Agency as a very important aspect for the Republic of North Macedonia’s technical readiness for EEA membership. Despite the fact that the membership of the Republic of North Macedonia in the EEA is related to EU membership, technical readiness for EEA membership needs to be recognized as a national priority, with sustainable planning of financial and human resources & expertise, both due to the increase in workload in the environmental sector in Europe, as well as in relation to the needs for implementation of the national priorities for a healthy environment and ecosystems, environment protection, and human health and productivity.
