Centre for Development of East Planning Region - Stip and Business Information and Consulting Centre - Sandanski, on January 20, 2014 (Monday) in the municipality of Sandanski, Reublic of Bulgaria, held a final press conference to present the results of the project "Promotion and protection of biodiversity Malesevo mountains - Males ", a project funded by the Program for Cross-Border Cooperation between Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Bulgaria 2007 - 2013, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance CCI Number 2007CB16IPO007.

On 15^th January in the restaurant "Kaj Chombe" in Probishtip was held in the third regional workshop of the project "Development of regional plans for waste management and strategic environmental assessment for East and North-East Region", attended by representatives of municipalities and public utilities in East planning region, inspection services and non-governmental organizations working in the field of environmental protection.

The project is funded by the IPA instrument of European Union and implemented by the consulting firm ENVIROPLAN S.A. Greece and its consortium partners C&E Consulting und Engineering GmbH - BT Engineering Ltd. Contracting authorities are the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of Macedonia.

European Union finance 1.14 million for the preparation of regional plans for waste management and strategic environmental assessment for the East and Northeast region, and the project will benefit 17 municipalities in these two regions.

On this third workshop of this project, there was presentation of the Assessment Report on the current situation of waste in all 11 municipalities in the East Planning Region, presented by team Leader Mr. Lolos Teofanis from consulting house ENVIROPLAN S.A. from Greece. Then the second presentation focused on research for landfills (municipal utility and dumps, called ilegal dumps) , their current condition and risk assessment of landfills depending on their impact on the environment and human health. Also, for all existing landfills were presented methods of remediation and reclamation, depending on the amount of waste containing. This part of the report was presented by Mr. Emil Kolev, hydrogeologist fro BT Engineering Ltd from Bulgaria.

The workshop ended with a final presentation which concerned the proposal form need to implement strategic environmental assessment and draft decision on implementation of strategic environmental assessment and correlation of the objectives of the plan or other relevant strategic plans and programs in Republic of Macedonia . The presentation by Ms. Menka Spirovska, expert for strategic environmental assessment, and holder of the report for strategic evaluation.

On January 16, 2014, same workshop like this was held in Kumanovo, where all researchs on the situation of landfills in the Northeast Region were presented.

The project is implemented by September 2014, when it will be produced main results - two regional plans for waste management in the two regions and two strategic environmental assessment of plans for waste management. Guidelines on how to manage the waste will be fully compliant with EU directives regarding waste management.

Overall, the impact of the planning documents on the environment are estimated that it will be positive.

Consortium members / experts working on the project said it was very important first to understand what is happening in the regions in terms of the state waste, for make good plans. In the last period there were two analyzed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the waste, and this is done for the first time in the Republic of Macedonia. Comprehensive analysis of all existing landfills are made, than a register of all landfills and calculated risk of each landfill. The main problem of waste management is the existence of illegal landfills that create major problems in the environment and human health. It is important to make a good plan to close illegal dumps.

All past performance of the project in February 2014 will be available on the project website.

Expets said they have very good cooperation with the municipalities that gives confidence to successfully complete the project.

According to the representatives of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Macedonia, who attended the workshop in Kumanovo, already submitted applications to the European funds for the next phase of the regional waste management in the first two pilot regions. First, there is need to prepare a feasibility study, and then basic project documentation for the construction of all facilities for waste management within the East and Northeast Region.

By 2017, these mentioned two projects that are already applied by the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning will be implement.

( N.S / ZH.M )

In the period from 21^st to 25^th of October in Erzurum, Turkey, there was a meeting for evaluatuion of the network SEENORDA, within the Youth in Action Programme. SEENORDA (South East European Network Of Regional Development Agencies) is a network of agencies dealing with regional development, and come from the region of South East Europe (SEE), from the following countries: Macedonia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (in the future the agencies from Serbia, Romania, Moldova and Greece are expected to join).

On the 19th December 2012, we mark the Day of the city "19th December - St. Nicholas", the patron protector of the city Shtip, and also "Promotional Day of the East Planning Region".

According to the program of celebration, it started with Liturgy in the Cathedral "St Nicholas", and after that it continued with Litija on the route: Cathedral "St Nicholas"  to "Marshal Tito" at the town square .

Pehchevo Municipality in collaboration with the Center for the development of the Eastern Region, on 13.07.2012 (Friday ) on the feast of Pehchevo - Pavlovden, organizes Promotional Day of the Eastern Region in Pehchevo with official start at 12:00 pm .

The event will be held at the City Square in Pehchevo where municipalities of Bregalnica region will have the option of booths to present their specifics before residents of the municipality Pehchevo.

On January 17^th at the offices of the Centre for Development of East Planning Region was held the second coordination meeting on the project "Cross -border educational network for children with special needs", which is being implemented by the Centre for the Development of the East Planning Region, as leading partner from Republic of Macedonia and the municipality of Goce Delchev, as a partner institution from the Republic of Bulgaria as part of the program for Cross-border cooperation between Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Bulgaria, no. 2007CB16IPO007-2009 -1. The project started with its implementation on 20.05.2011. It enables the exchange of experiences and communication between institutions on both sides of the border and joint use of facilities available for treatment of children with physical disabilities. Web portal and Study will analyze and map the potentials and capabilities of institutions of different characters working on the rehabilitation of children with physical disabilities, for cration of common information system.