International cooperation in North Macedonia: an EU twinning project for environmental and health statistics

On 18 September 2025 the mid-term conference of the EU-funded Twinning Project “Improving quality and comprehensiveness of environmental and health statistics” was held in Skopje. The project is being implemented by Istat with the technical support of the Italian Geographical Society (SGI), the Energy Services Agency (GSE) and the Consortium for Information Systems (CSI – Piemonte), with a total duration of 24 months and has now successfully completed its first year of implementation.

The conference, opened by H.E. Paolo Palminteri, Ambassador of Italy to North Macedonia, Mr. Steffen Hudolin, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to North Macedonia, and Mr. Dejan Stankov, Director General of the State Statistical Office of North Macedonia, gathered representatives from national institutions, European statistical offices, and international experts.

The first part of the agenda hosted a panel session “Modernizing official statistics for European Integration”, moderated by Professor Marjan Petreski (University American College Skopje). Mr. Mauro Bruno (Istat), Mr. Roberto Bianchini (SGI), Ms. Mojica Suvorov (State Statistical Office of Slovenia) and Mr. Klajd Shuka (Institute of Statistics of Albania) shared their experiences on how innovative methodologies, digital tools, geospatial data, and modern approaches to official statistics are crucial for aligning with UE acquis and for ensuring greater transparency and accountability in public decision-making.

In the second part of the conference, Ms. Marina Mijovska (SSO, Leader of Component for Environmental and Agriculture Statistics) and Ms. Dijana Krstevska (SSO, Leader of Component for Health Statistics) presented the results achieved so far within the project and the main upcoming activities. Ms. Donatella Zindato (Istat, Resident Twinning Adviser) and Ms. Milena Grassia (Istat, Project Leader) closed the conference highlighting the distinctive features of the Twinning as an instrument aimed at supporting candidate countries through the process of EU integration and the knowledge sharing approach adopted in order to improve environmental, agriculture and health statistics in North Macedonia.

This project represents a concrete example of how international cooperation, through the sharing of advanced skills and methodologies, can contribute significantly to strengthening a country’s institutional capacity, supporting it on its journey toward accession to the European Union.

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