Regulatory reforms in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

In order to eliminate duplication and inconsistency between the old and the new sets of legislation, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia initiated, at the end of 2006, a process to review existing laws and by-laws, to streamline bureaucratic procedures, and introduce a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). As a result, and in consultation with the business community, ministries, non-governmental organizations and independent experts, the Sector for Regulatory Reforms (which reports to the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs) has proposed changes to many laws and by-laws. This process called the “regulatory guillotine” has been continuously carried out in several stages. Hitherto, in the first phase, 2000 laws and by-laws were reviewed in cooperation with the business community and citizens, and measures were taken and carried out in 545 regulations. The second phase started in April 2009, whereby 54 measures were adopted towards simplification of the cross-border trading procedures. As a third phase, in October 2010 the Government adopted a new package of 47 measures, which are currently under implementation. The measures relate to procedures in several areas, such as agriculture, labour and social policy, health, environment and insurance. Their implementation is scheduled for completion by mid-2011, followed by more consultation with the business community, determining the possibility of formulating a new set of measures for further simplification of the administrative procedures.

Related Subject(s): United Nations

Countries: North Macedonia