Today in Brussels, with the European Commission's presentations on Chapter 28 - Consumer Protection and Public Health, we completed the explanatory screening for Cluster 2 - Internal Market.

The deputy chief negotiator for North Macedonia with the European Union, Mrs. Drita Abdiu-Halili, underlined that in the past years, North Macedonia implemented numerous changes in the national legislation and innovations in the institutional organization based on the recommendations of experts from certain fields.

In this direction, we can list a few of them:

- The new Law on consumer protection has been adopted by the Government and is now in parliamentary procedure. This law contains the new EU directives from 2019.

- The Government established the Consumer Protection Council composed of members of the state administration bodies, whose competencies are related to consumer protection, consumer health and a representative from the chambers of commerce.

In the last three years, the public health system has faced the consequences of the crisis caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. The crisis proved how important public health is. Last year, the Government adopted the Health Strategy for 2021-2030, which contains guidelines for the development of the health system for the future, as well as the improvement of the health condition of the population.

- The centre for epidemiological monitoring and management of health crises was created based on the system for continuous warning of epidemiological information and works 24/7.

- In these extremely difficult conditions of a special regime for health facilities due to the Covid 19 pandemic, a great leap has been taken in the field of transplantation, where a heart transplant was performed for the first time. In addition, multi-organ transplant plans have begun to be implemented.

On the other hand, the representatives of the European Commission presented the new package of directives and regulations of the European Union that are related to consumer protection, health care, infectious diseases, cross-border health risks, as well as public and environmental determinants of health.