Albania

This chapter elaborates policy recommendations for promoting the sustainability and circularity of North Macedonia’s construction sector across all building life stages. It gives an oversight of the current state-of-play and policy framework in the country along with areas for improvement and puts forward a set of concrete policy recommendations, enriched with insights from international best practices.

This chapter outlines the circular economy potential of North Macedonia’s mining and metallurgy sectors, examining key aspects such as mining and metal processing value chains, material flows, research and innovation, and industrial symbiosis. It identifies crucial levers to make the sectors more circular. The analysis reviews the existing circular economy-related policy landscape, pinpoints areas for improvement and presents specific policy recommendations, enriched with insights from international best practices.

This chapter assesses the circular economy policy framework and initiatives in North Macedonia, emphasising critical economic aspects and environmental impact related to energy production, emissions, material use and waste management. Challenges persist in areas such as energy intensity, fossil dependency, circular material use and waste recycling. This chapter pinpoints key policy areas essential for North Macedonia’s shift towards a circular and carbon-neutral economy. By identifying gaps in both policy formulation and implementation, and incorporating further analyses, the chapter provides insights for prioritising areas in future circular economy policy documents.

This chapter introduces a set of policy recommendations to facilitate the shift of the Macedonian economy towards circular business models, with an emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises. The chapter assesses the current situation and policy framework in place, identifies possible areas for improvement, and makes a number of specific policy recommendations, which are supported by international best practices.

This chapter outlines the objectives, structure and context of the circular economy roadmap. Moreover, it explores the concept of the circular economy, providing an overview of the increasing momentum for its implementation in North Macedonia.

Transitioning to a circular economy is a long-term process requiring broad societal consensus. The Roadmap Towards Circular Economy of North Macedonia was developed through a multi-step process which involved a wide range of stakeholders in a continuous dialogue. The design of the roadmap was undertaken as described below.

This chapter puts forth a monitoring framework with specific indicators tailored to each recommendation within the five priority areas presented in the roadmap for North Macedonia. This framework is a crucial tool for the effective implementation of the circular economy roadmap, playing a key role in assessing progress towards strategic targets and goals set for North Macedonia’s circular transition.

This chapter formulates policy recommendations to facilitate the adoption of a circular approach in North Macedonia’s biomass and food sector, with a particular emphasis on bioeconomy principles. It gives an overview of the current context in this sector and its underlying policy framework, identifies key areas for potential improvement, and presents specific policy recommendations based on relevant international best practices.

While actively pursuing sustainable development and seeking to deepen its regional and European Union (EU) integration, North Macedonia is faced with important challenges around climate change, rising resource demand and pollution. To proactively confront these issues, the country is embracing the pursuit of a circular economy – a cornerstone of the Green Agenda of the Western Balkans – which is gaining traction due to its key role in addressing pressing economic concerns, while contributing to national and regional environmental objectives.

This roadmap aims to assist the government of North Macedonia in establishing a robust policy framework for a successful transition to a circular economy. Grounded in a thorough diagnostic of the country’s circular economy landscape, it provides a set of key policy measures for this transition, strategically incorporating ongoing policy initiatives and promoting strong alignment across the sectors, policy measures and stakeholders involved in this transformative process.

Cette feuille de route vise à aider les pouvoirs publics de Macédoine du Nord à mettre en place un cadre d’action solide pour réussir la transition vers une économie circulaire. S’appuyant sur un diagnostic approfondi du paysage de l’économie circulaire du pays, elle propose un ensemble de mesures clés pour cette transition, intégrant stratégiquement les initiatives d’action publique en cours et favorisant un alignement étroit entre les secteurs, les mesures prises par les pouvoirs publics et les parties prenantes associées à ce processus de transformation.

[2] Env.net (2020), Circular Economy Country Specific Report, Env.net, http://env-net.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Circular-Economy-Status-Report_Balkan_Bridges_NM.pdf.

This chapter presents the selection process that culminated in the identification of five priority areas for North Macedonia’s Circular Economy Roadmap: circular business models for small and medium-sized firms, construction, biomass and food, textiles, and mining and metallurgy. It elaborates on the consultation and decision-making processes underlying the selection, offering insights into the OECD methodology employed to decide on the pertinent priority areas.

This chapter outlines policy recommendations aimed at promoting the transition to circular business models in the Albanian economy, specifically focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises. It presents the state-of-play and existing policy framework, points out potential areas for improvement, and proposes a set of specific policy recommendations that draw inspiration from relevant international good practices.

This chapter describes the selection process that led to the identification of three priority areas for Albania’s Circular Economy Roadmap: economic instruments, circular business models for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the plastics life cycle with a focus on marine litter. It details the underlying consultation and decision-making processes and provides insights on the OECD methodology employed to determine these pertinent priority areas.

Transitioning to a circular economy is a long-term process requiring broad societal consensus. This roadmap was developed through a multi-step process involving a wide range of stakeholders in a continuous dialogue spanning several months. This annex describes how the roadmap was designed.

This chapter focuses on the “economic instruments” priority area, offering an analysis and suggesting policy recommendations to enhance circularity throughout the product value chain. Encompassing aspects related to product design, production, consumption patterns and end-of-life measures, the chapter examines existing policy instruments in Albania that could facilitate a transformative process, drawing insights from international best practices.