The EU-funded Twinning project “Strengthening of the institutional capacity of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia (NBRNM) in the process of its accession to the European System of Central Banks”, initiated on 15 September 2019, was officially launched with a kick-off meeting in Skopje at the end of October 2019.

The Governor of the NBRNM, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, the German Ambassador, Thomas Gerberich, and a representative of the Croatian Embassy, Ana Vučić, all spoke at the event, which was attended by around eighty participants. Dr Julian Reischle, Director General, Economic Education, Deutsche Bundesbank gave a keynote speech. Andrea Mink the responsible German project leader was also present.

Representatives of the NBRNM’s two project partners, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Croatian National Bank, provided a detailed overview of the project, which has received funding of €600,000 and will run for 15 months. The project will receive additional support from the central banks of Belgium, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and the Netherlands.

The objective of the EU-funded project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the NBRNM to enable it to fulfil the required ESCB standards and safeguard macroeconomic stability. It has four key components: payment services and payment systems, banking regulation and supervision, financial accounts statistics, and enhancement of know-how in policy analysis.

This is the second EU-funded project in which the German and Croatian central banks have acted as joint project partners to the NBRNM, following on from the EU Twinning Light project on counterfeit prevention, which was successfully completed in June 2019.