The Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia adopted the new Law on Electronic Communications on June 27, 2025, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia No. 135/2025 of July 4, 2025.
According to Article 226 of the new Law on Electronic Communications entitled “Termination of validity of the existing provisions on data retention and data protection and security”, on the day of entry into force of this law, Articles 176, 177 and 178 of the Law on Electronic Communications (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 39/14, 188/14, 44/15, 193/15, 11/18 and 21/18 and “Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” No. 98/19, 153/19, 92/21, 222/24 and 59/25) shall cease to be valid.
Article 227 of the new Law on Electronic Communications, entitled “Termination of validity of the existing Law”, provides that on the day of the commencement of the application of this law, the Law on Electronic Communications (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 39/14, 188/14, 44/15, 193/15, 11/18 and 21/18 and “Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” No. 98/19, 153/19, 92/21, 222/24 and 59/25) shall cease to be valid.
The final provision of Article 228 of the new Law on Electronic Communications stipulates that this law shall enter into force on the eighth day from the day of its publication in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia”, i.e. on July 12, 2025, and shall begin to apply from June 1, 2026, except for Articles 205, 206 and 207 of this law, which shall begin to apply on the day of entry into force of this law.
The provisions of Articles 205, 206 and 207 of the new Law on Electronic Communications refer to the obligation of operators to retain data, data protection and security, as well as the types of data that are retained. These provisions are in fact a counterpart to the provisions of Articles 176, 177 and 178 of the previous Law on Electronic Communications, which cease to be valid with the entry into force of the new Law on Electronic Communications.
Unlike the provisions of Articles 176, 177 and 178 of the previous Law on Electronic Communications, Articles 205, 206 and 207 of the new Law on Electronic Communications provide for the following changes:
Article 205, paragraph 3 of the new Law on Electronic Communications provides for an obligation for operators to submit the retained data and all other necessary information relating to this data to the competent authorities upon request, under conditions and a procedure established either by a separate law or based on a request from a competent public prosecutor or a court decision.
Article 206 of the new Law on Electronic Communications provides for a period of 12 months for the storage of retained data, and after the expiry of the period of 12 months from the date of the communication and/or its generation, the data shall be destroyed by the operators. Paragraph 5 of the same article stipulates that “the data that have been accessed and stored in accordance with Article 205 paragraph (3) of this Law shall be destroyed upon completion of a court procedure with a final decision or upon the expiry of the periods provided for in the Law on Criminal Procedure for conducting a pre-investigation and investigative procedure.
Article 207 of the new Law on Electronic Communications specifies the types of data that are retained.
One of the reasons for the adoption of the new Law on Electronic Communications is full compliance with the NIS 2 Directive of the European Union on Network and Information Security, whose primary focus is cybersecurity, but also the collection, storage and processing of personal data necessary for cybersecurity purposes.
The purpose of the new Law on Electronic Communications is to encourage the development of public electronic communications networks and services in the Republic of North Macedonia, in order to ensure economic and social development, encourage the use and development of broadband access to services, protect the rights of users, including end-users with disabilities and end-users with special social needs, ensure efficient and sustainable competition in the electronic communications market, ensure universal service, efficient use of the radio frequency spectrum and numbering, promote the development and encourage investments in public electronic communications networks by introducing new technologies and services, and in particular by introducing next-generation public electronic communications networks with very high capacity and ensure the confidentiality of communications.
Hence, the new Law on Electronic Communications is expected not only to strengthen the rights of users, but also to ensure a higher level of personal data protection, greater competitiveness and regulatory certainty, but also greater transparency and efficiency in the operations of operators.