The Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Kaja Shukova opened the workshop which is an introduction to the implementation of the regional component of the Global Project for updating the National Implementation Plan for the reduction and elimination of Persistent Organic Pollutants – POPs.
In her speech, Minister Shukova emphasized that the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning has been actively working on the implementation of global agreements and initiatives related to the management of chemicals and waste for more than two decades, such as: the Stockholm Convention on POPs chemicals, the Rotterdam Convention, the Minamata Convention on reduction and elimination of mercury, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and its Storage, then the SAICM Initiate and its new successor, the Global Framework for the Safe Management of Chemicals and their Waste.
- Through all these activities, by building and strengthening its institutional and legal capacities, our country strives to realize its ambitions for membership in the European Union – said Shukova.
The minister placed emphasis on the implementation of the Stockholm Convention and the National Implementation Plan for the reduction and elimination of POPs.
- These two documents contributed to the establishment of a POPs management system in the country, which was followed by a series of successful projects in this area – she added.
The workshop is organized by the Office for POPs at the MOEPP in coordination with the Regional Center for the Stockholm Convention in Brno, Czech Republic – RECETOX, which is also the implementer of the regional component. The event was held within the framework of the activities of the project: “Global development, review and updating of the National Implementation Plans under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)” in the Republic of North Macedonia.