The project team of the EU-funded project implemented by the ECG-led Consortium in the Republic of Macedonia ‘Enhancing the administrative capacities of telecom and media authorities for efficient regulation of new digital and multiple play services’ has taken an important role regards to the draft new Law on Electronic Communications. The project experts participated in the evaluation of the draft new Law which was prepared by the Working Group coordinated by the Agency for Electronic Communications (AEK).

The Ministry of Information Society and Administration of the Republic of Macedonia intends to issue the new Law on Electronic Communications which is compatible with the EU 2009 legal and regulatory framework for electronic communications. A Working Group coordinated by the Agency for Electronic Communications (AEK) has prepared the draft new Law, which was made available during the latter part of 2013 for public consultation.

The Working Group has incorporated relevant comments from the consultation into the new draft Law, which was published by the Ministry in January 2014. The previous Law, adopted in 2005, was compatible with the EU (2002) legal and regulatory framework, and so the drafting of the new Macedonian law has focused on the changes made to the EU framework between 2002 and 2009. The Project experts have provided the following: Relevant observations on the new draft Law that assisted the Working Group in finalizing the law; Marked changes and comments to the unofficial English translation of the new draft Law, in order to assist in the preparation of the official English version and also to assist the Working Group to ensure that the meaning is clear in both the English and Macedonian versions. The project team concluded that the new draft Law was well drafted and appeared to be a good transposition of the EU 2009 regulatory framework for electronic communications.

The project ‘Enhancing the administrative capacities of telecom and media authorities for efficient regulation of new digital and multiple play services’ (EuropeAid/129857/D/SER/MK) is funded by the European Union with Eur 854.900 and implemented from September 2013 until February 2015, by ECG in Consortium with Human Dynamics, Regulaid, and SBR Juconomy Consulting.