CHALLENGES OF THE HARMONIZATION OF MACEDONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION WITH THE EU LEGISLATION

European Union is one of the world leaders in the development and implementation of environmental standards. The EU has developed a complex system of environmental legislation. The main goal of this legislation is to provide a high level of environmental protection. On a way towards the EU integration Macedonia faces with a number of challenges in harmonization of its environmental legislation with the EU legislation. There are some positive results in the harmonization, but the problems start with the practical implementation. There are a number of subjective and objectives reasons for weak practical implementation. In the future Macedonia has to make intensive efforts to perform harmonization and to implement its environmental legislation. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the process of harmonization of national environmental legislation with the EU legislation. Also the paper aims to give some recommendations for overcoming the problems and challenges in this process.