1 Abstract— - This paper elaborated the main objectives of the Directive 2009/28/EC on renewable energy sources and tasks for the EU Member States and candidate countries for EU membership. RM largely realizes planned strategic objectives arising from the requirements of the Directive. Standardization listed renewable energy sources and strategic energy data and the plan as rounded outline are given in the paper. The comparative analysis provides a snapshot of the current state of progress of the Republic of Macedonia in terms of increasing the share of energy from renewable sources. Index Terms – renewable energy, Directive 2009/28/EC, renewable energy sources substitution, CO 2 emission. I. INTRODUCTION With established the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC, the European Union has adopted a very ambitious plan to increase the share of renewables in their energy consumption to 20% by 2020, including a 10% goal for the use of renewables in transport alone. Renewable energy for distribution on infrastructure could come from a variety of sources, but for transport area, the main source is biofuel. The Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC, which sets these goals, will therefore trigger a large increase in the consumption of biofuel in the EU. Critics argue that biofuels could have negative social implications because they could lead to an increase in food prices. This is particularly relevant for today’s first generation biofuels, which are based on biomass that could otherwise be used for food purposes, or on biomass produced on land otherwise suitable for food production. The environmental effects of biofuels are also controversial. Although in principle CO2-neutral, the use of biofuel never leads to a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the use of fossil fuels and could, in extreme cases, even lead to an increase in emissions. To address the possible negative environmental concerns, the Directive lays out sustainability criteria that biofuels have to fulfill. These relate to overall efficiency in terms of emission reductions, but also specify which type of land can be used to produce the feedstock. Some critics have argued that making a distinction between biofuels based on such criteria is incompatible with WTO disciplines. This paper examines the Directive’s biofuel sustainability criteria and their WTO-consistency within the framework of specific WTO Articles, with a particular emphasis on the general exemption clause (Article XX of the GATT). II. BACKGROUND TO DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (the Directive) was adopted on 23 April 2009. The Directive entered into force on 25 June 2009 and mandates implementation by Member States by 5 December 2010. The EU Renewable Energy Directive pursues a dual objective of increased security of energy supply and reduced GHG emissions through replacing fossil fuel with renewables. This Directive is distinct from previous directives in that it provides a stronger regulatory framework by introducing legally binding targets for renewable energy at the EU level. Directive 2009/28/EC lays out mandatory country-specific targets for each EU Member State for the overall share of energy that has to come from renewable sources by 2020. The targets, which will increase in several steps until 2020,3 vary widely between Member States (between 10% for Malta and 49% for Sweden) and are set such that a Community average of 20% will be reached compared to 1990 levels.4 The target applies to energy used for electricity generation, heating and cooling and transport. Article 3.4 of the Directive sets a mandatory target of a 10% share of renewable energy used for transport in each Member State. In order to reach these targets, Member States are encouraged to implement domestic support schemes ‘that promote the use of energy from renewable sources by reducing the cost of that energy, increasing the price at which it can be sold, or increasing, by means of a renewable energy obligation or otherwise, the volume of such energy purchases’.5 These support schemes can include, amongst others, financial means such as ‘investment aid, tax exemptions or reductions, tax refunds, [14], and direct price support schemes including feed- in tariffs and premium payments’. Biofuels and other ‘bio liquids’ not produced according to the sustainability criteria set by the Directive will not be counted towards the share of renewable energy in overall energy consumption nor towards Implementation the tasks of the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC in EU Members and R.Macedonia as a country-candidate T. Geramitoski, G. Trombev, V. Mitrevski, V. Mijakovski, I. Andreevski Faculty of Technical Science – Bitola, University St. Kliment Ohridski – Bitola, RM