Screening Preparatory Assessment (SPA) meetings were considered to be very important for the negotiation process, especially after the explanatory meetings for Chapter 27 for Albania and North Macedonia that took place in Brussels during 13-17 May, 2019.
The main goal of the SPA meetings were to assess the current level of transposition and implementation of all directives/regulations related to Chapter 27, to identify the gaps and to propose actions to close this identified gaps. In completing such tasks were assigned 19 national experts that SANE27 has contracted in December 2018. 17 SPA meetings took place from March 17 to April 5, 2019. Each day was dedicated to a specific sub-chapter of Chapter 27 such as Horizontal, Air Quality, Waste Management, Industrial Pollution Control, Chemicals, Water, Nature, Noise, Climate Change, and the directives/regulations within. In each meeting, the nationalexperts gave a short presentation about their findings. Representatives from national authorities, were present in each meeting. After each presentation there was room for discussion and various questions were asked among the representatives from authorities to the local experts and vice versa. At the end of each meeting conclusions were drafted identifying the main gaps and actions to and ways how to close them. In this SPA meetings, SEPA and international experts took place, in order to share their EU experience in implementation of relevant directives and regulation as well the experience in EU negotiations process for Chapter 27. They provided advices and gave guidance the Albanian administration representatives how to manage some challenges they face.
From the 17 SPA meetings that took place, the general main gaps for each directive/regulation identified are listed below.
General Gaps:
- Further transposition needed
- Necessity for establishing relevant administrative structure
- Communication efficiency among institutions and stakeholders
- Capacity Building on national and local administration
- Increasing overall awareness for environment
Based on the conclusions for each directive/regulations, a need assessment documents have been prepare as project fish.
