In October 2005, the Macedonian Parliament signed the Energy Community Treaty in Athens, bringing together 8 South-Eastern European states and the European Union for the creation of an integrated energy market. This treaty also reinforced the legal bases for the creation of an independent energy market regulator.

This Strategy provides overarching principles and guidance for policies and programs to be developed and implemented in the fields of energy: access to stable and continuous energy supply (essential for economic development and social stability); enhanced security of supply; improvement of environmental situation; development of market competition and better exploitation of economies of scale.

This Strategy provides the overarching guidance for policies and programs to be developed and implemented in the fields of energy efficiency.  The objective of the Strategy is to advance market transformation in the field of EE by creating a policy framework that will stimulate demand for more energy-efficient technologies and services. As demand grows, the Strategy envisages the proliferation of both Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and companies that supply energy-efficient equipment and maintenance services for the above.

The First NEEAP was developed to cover a period of 9 years, from 2010 to 2018, and it set out measures and activities aimed to attain by 2018 an overall national reduction of primary energy consumption of at least 9% compared to the average registered in the period 2002-2006, and it also set national indicative intermediate target for energy savings to at least 4% for a period 2010-2012.  The overall national energy saving target until 2012 was set in 66 ktoe.

This Program determines the measures, conditions, means and schedule for implementing the National Energy Strategy, as well as the necessary financing and the sources for securing it. This is oriented towards energy efficiency in the public, residential and service sectors. The sources of financing are based mostly on IFIs and the state-run electricity producer ELEM.

The Second NEEAP covers the period 2013-2015.  The highest priority indicated in the Draft Second NEEAP of Macedonia is the urgent need to implement an efficient information gathering system for monitoring and verifying energy savings associated with the implementation of the EE measures set out in the Second NEEAP.

The Third NEEAP covers the period 2016-2018. One of the recommended measures for improved energy efficiency in industry relates to the compressed air systems: implementation of appropriate design capacity of compressed air, improved working installation of the pipeline, implementation of a maintenance program and, ultimately, purchase of compression units with high energy efficiency.

The Law on Energy governs: (1) The aims and the manner of implementation of the energy policy; (2) the construction of energy buildings; (3) the status and competences of the Regulatory Commission for Energy and Water Services of the Republic of North Macedonia; (4) Markets for electricity, natural gas, heat energy as well as the market of petroleum, petroleum derivatives and transport fuels; (5) The manner and procedure for determining and fulfilling obligations for providing public services in the markets for electricity, natural gas and heat energy, as well as the rights and responsibilities of energy consumers and users of energy systems; (6) The manner and conditions for incentivizing the use of renewable energy sources and (7) other energy-related issues

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The Law on Energy Efficiency governs: (1) the efficient use of the energy; (2) the energy efficiency policy; (3) the competences of the competent Ministry for energy matters (the Ministry of Economy) and the Energy Agency for the implementation of this Law; (4) the obligations of the public sector regarding the energy efficiency and the energy consumption; (5) the energy efficiency obligation scheme and the alternative measures; (6) energy audits of large enterprises; (7) energy efficiency in generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity; (8) the provision of energy services and the manners for financing the supporting measures for energy efficiency; (9) the energy efficiency of buildings; and (10) energy labelling and eco-design for energy-related products.

The Rulebook covers: Energy Audit process description; Baseline setting method; Energy Audit Report Template; Programme for qualification / certification of energy auditors; Certification process (eligibility criteria to become an energy auditor, outlook of a certificate and assigned authority to issue certificates); Registry of energy audit reports; Annual reports on executed energy audits; Methodology for monitoring and verification of savings.

It defines the conditions and standards for the construction of private and public buildings, which will allow for classification according to the degree of energy efficiency and the issuing of respective “energy passports”.