Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujčić addressed the closing conference of the Twining project “Strengthening of the Institutional Capacity of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia in the Process of its Accession to the European System of Central Banks”, held virtually on 11 March 2021. In his address the Governor expressed his great pleasure that CNB experts, following several years of bilateral cooperation with colleagues from the central bank of North Macedonia, also had the opportunity to transfer their knowledge and expertise within the Twinning project, thereby contributing to its success.

The main objective of the project was to support the central bank of North Macedonia in further harmonisation of the rules, regulations, policies and operations with the standards of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the best international practices, in order to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability. The Twinning project, funded by the EU with EUR 600,000, lasted from September 2019 to March 2021 and involved the participation of a consortium of the central banks of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Croatia as well as of experts from the central banks of other EU member states.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 led to an unexpected and sudden change in planned activities, forcing the partners to suspend the project for three months and change the mode of its implementation, in line with the guidance of the European Commission. The project was resumed in July 2020, with all missions, including the closing conference, being held virtually.

Croatian National Bank experts took part in project activities related to payment services, banking regulations and financial account statistics. It should be noted that Croatian experts, in terms of expert days, executed almost 50% of project activities. Also, CNB representative Gordana Miškić was a Resident Twinning Advisor and coordinated all major project activities.

This is the fourth completed technical cooperation project with participation of CNB experts, financed by the EU. The eight-month Twinning light project “Strengthening the Capacities of the System for Fight against Counterfeiting of Euro” for the Republic of North Macedonia was led by the German central bank and was completed in June 2019. The Twinning project “Strengthening of the Institutional Capacities of the National Bank of Serbia in the Process of EU Accession” lasted from September 2018 to March 2020 and involved the participation of a consortium of the central banks of Germany, Croatia and Romania. Finally, the Twining project for the financial sector in Montenegro “Support to Regulation of Financial Services” took place from April 2018 to July 2020 and involved the participation of the central banks of Germany, Croatia and the Netherlands and the financial services supervisory agencies of Germany and Croatia (BaFin and HANFA).

The experts from the Croatian National Bank, together with 20 central banks of the ESCB, led by the German central bank, are also participating in a regional “Programme for Strengthening the Central Bank Capacities in the Western Balkans with a View to the Integration to the ESCB”, which lasts from March 2019 to December 2021.