Update to the contribution to the progress report on the process of accession of the republic of macedonia to the european union

III CAPACITY FOR ASSUMING OBLIGATIONS FROM EU MEMBERSHIP

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3.1FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS

In the course of June, due to further harmonisation with the EU directives, new legal acts were submitted to the EC: Rulebook on Gas Appliances (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 97/07); Rulebook on Simple Pressure Vessels (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.144/07) and Rulebook on Non-Automatic Weighting (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.56/07) together with Table of Concordance. Also, the draft Law on Technical Inspection was submitted before adoption.

With aim to continue negotiations for ACA (Agreement on Conformity Assessment) a meeting was held by the end of August 2008, in Brussels. The outcome of the negotiations is the necessity of further harmonisation of the Law on Product Safety, the Rulebook on Transportable Pressure Equipment, the Rulebook on Machinery, as well as in the area of standardisation due to adoption of EU standards of New Approach and accreditation in line of MLA.
During this period the Law of Chemicals and the Law on Cosmetic Product Safety with their Concordance Tables was sent to the EC as part of ACA mission. In the Law of Chemicals, Regulation 32000R0648 was transposed. The Bureau of Pharmaceutics together with the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning are in charge of implementation of this Law.
In July 2008, the Ministry of Economy applied for TAIEX support on transposition of the revised EU Directive on machinery, into Rulebook on Machinery.
Regarding standardisation, in the period covering June - August 2008, 203 International and European standards and other standardisation documents were adopted as national standards and standardisation documents out of which 150 are connected with EU directives.
The total number of adopted International and European standards and other standardisation documents as Macedonian is 3674, out of which 2975 are related to New Approach and other EU Directives. The total number of withdrawn Macedonian standards is 65.

In the reporting period, 2 ISRM Technical Committees (ISRM TC’s) were established, in the area of Plastics and Electronic communications. The total number of Technical Committees reached 31. The establishment of one technical committee is ongoing.

ISRM attended the General Assembly of European Body for Standardisation CEN and CENELEC in Bucharest (24-26 June).
In accordance with the ACA mission held in January, the Law Amending the Law on Accreditation (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 103/2008), was adopted in order to achieve alignment with the EU terminology.
The Law on Technical Inspection was adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 88/08“). The Law provides surveillance of technical products in use that is performed through technical inspections and periodical examinations, due to already transposed directives (i.e. pressure equipment, transportable pressure equipment, lifts, cableway installation, simple vessel pressure, ATEX, machinery etc). These inspections are undertaken by accredited legal entities, which accreditation is performed by the Accreditation Institute of the Republic of Macedonia and designated by the Ministry of Economy. ,The State Technical Inspectorate (STI) is the state competent body authorised to supervise the work of the legal entities and users of the technical products.
In addition, the Law Amending the Law on Weapons was adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 86/08“). The amendments are in accordance with the EC recommendations.
New Inspector’s Market Surveillance Procedure Guidelines / Manual was drafted. This guideline is drafted with support by the IPA EU-funded Market Surveillance project: Technical Assistance to Market Surveillance (06MAC01/07/103) in order to support State Market Inspectorate and its inspectors when developing a market surveillance system. The aim is to describe the principles and working methods used in the European market surveillance system of technical products. This manual includes 5 parts: EU Requirements for national market surveillance; Technical EU legislation for products; National legislation for product and consumer safety; Role of State Market Inspectorate; Role of market surveillance inspector
During this period, several important documents were prepared:

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  Guide of Mechanism and bodies for submitting the report of RAPEX;
  
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  Methodological Guide of reporting of dangerous products;
  
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  Mechanisms for internal and external communication and cooperation of State Market Inspectorate;
  
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  New Organisational Chart of State Market Inspectorate related to establishing unit of product safety and RAPEX;
  
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  Strategy on Training of State Market Inspectorate; and
  
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  Action Plan on Market Surveillance.
  

3.2FREE MOVEMENT OF WORKERS

1. 
   Access to labour market
   

The Ministry of Interior prepared the Information regarding difficulties on the implementation of the Law on Foreigners (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 35/2006, 66/2007) and the Law on Employment and Work of Foreigners (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 70/2007). The following issues were raised as problematic and given priority: internal cooperation among institutions in the Republic of Macedonia and the part which regulates time limits, concerning the rights of obtaining specific work permits for foreigners.

2. 
   Coordination of the social security systems
   

Primary legislation

The Law Amending the Law on Mandatory Fully Funded Pension Insurance was adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 88/08). Accordingly, new pension insurance company apart from already existing two can have an access upon public tender. Additionally it provides foreign companies with rights to gain an authorisation, as a manner of stimulating foreign investments and competition in this field.

The Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, adopted the Law Amending the Law on Health Insurance (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 82/08). This Law established health insurance payment possibility for part-time work per hour, harmonisation of these provisions with the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance in compliance with the requirements for harmonisation of social insurance contributions and accomplished legal base for collecting and distributing Pension and Disability Insurance Fund.
The Law on Primary Education was adopted on August. This Law includes provisions of the EU legislation (Council Directive 77/486/EEC of 25 July 1977 on the education of the children of migrant workers) that regulates the primary education of children of EU citizens, foreign nationals or apatrids, residents in the Republic of Macedonia.
The Law Amending the Law Amending the Law on Personal Registration Records of the Insured and Beneficiaries of Pension and Disability Insurance Rights (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 102/08) provides legal base for electronic entry and exit on the register. This system enables modernisation and facilitation of the entire registration procedure that is in accordance with the process of regulatory guillotine. In the same time it was harmonised with the Law on Misdemeanours.
The Law Amending the Law on Registration Records on the Labour Area (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 102/08) makes possible functioning of the electronic system for the entry and the exit of the labour relationships, namely creation of the new electronic forms for the necessity of new employee and labour relationship declaration form. This Law was also harmonised with the Law on Misdemeanours.
Secondary legislation

The Agency for Supervision of Fully Funded Pension Insurance adopted several rulebooks which derive from the revision on the Law on Mandatory Fully Funded Pension Insurance (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.153/07, 88/08):

• 
  Rulebook on distribution of insured people in the mandatory pension funds, the manner and the procedure for acquiring membership in the mandatory pension funds for the first time, manner and the procedure for passing from existing to future mandatory pension fund and the form of the contract for membership in the pension fund (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 93/08).
  
• 
  Rulebook on the compensation which refers to mandatory pension funds, manner and the period of payment of compensations in the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 93/08).
  
• 
  Rulebook on the maximum amount and the manner of the payment of compensation passing of the member from one to another pension fund (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 93/08).
  

PROJECTS AND ТRAININGS

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and The Agency for Supervision of Fully Funded Pension Insurance on August presented the Law on Voluntary Fully Founded Pension Insurance. This took place in the premises of the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Macedonia as part of the session of the Council of Foreign Investors.

In the period covering May, a delegation from Armenia paid a working visit to Macedonia. The aim of the visit was to share our experience regarding the purpose of the reforms in the pension system, the structure of reformed system, the goals and the benefits of implementing such reforms, with an emphasise on the work of the institutions in charge of conducting the pension policy, such as: the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PDIF) and the Agency for Supervision on Fully Funded Pension Insurance (MAPAS).
The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy through USAID & BEA project engaged an expert in order to provide actuarial projections regarding the Law on Annuity and Periodic Withdrawals for Fully Funded Pension Insurance. In this period, the engaged expert presented the White Book - with comments on the fully funded pension insurance in front of representatives from the MLSP, PDIF and MAPAS.
From 9^th to 10^th of July, representative of the Government of Macedonia in charge of reforms in the pension system was invited by the World Bank to present our experience before Moldavian authorities in this field.
On the 11^th of July, the representative of the Government of Macedonia in charge of reforms in the pension system attended the first regional meeting: “Coordination of social care system and reforms on social care”, organised by European Commission (IPA-Project) and the Council of Europe. The project involves the following countries: Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, Monte Negro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey.