Skopje, 10 February 2023 (MIA) – Bilateral screening meetings on Cluster 2 - Internal Market are resuming in Brussels, with Chapter 4 - Free Movement of Capital on Friday’s agenda.

The Secretariat for European Affairs (SEA) said the negotiating team is headed by deputy chief EU negotiator Drita Abdiu-Halili, who pointed out that North Macedonia is making continuous efforts to harmonize the national legislation with the EU Acquis in this area, which also includes full liberalization in the phase of capital flows from financial accounts, in accordance with the second phase of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) which began in December 2018.

“In the area of movement of capital and payments, in accordance with SAA, our Law on Foreign Exchange Operations foresees a gradual liberalization of the movement of capital. Regarding the payment systems, the current legal framework of our country which regulates the work of the payment system is substantially harmonized with the EU Acquis. In April 2022, the Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems, which is largely harmonized with the EU Payment Services Directive, as well as other directives concerning electronic money and payment transactions. This law has been in force since January 2023, meaning that payment transactions are not only carried out by banks but also by other licensed payment institutions,” added Abdiu-Halili.

The goal of the chapter on free movement of capital is to enable efficient cross-border distribution of physical and financial capital for investment and financial purposes.

According to the SEA press release, this means opportunities for citizens to perform more transactions, including the opportunity to open bank accounts abroad, buy securities from foreign companies, invest where the return on investment is greater, as well as buy real estate abroad.

For businesses, the free movement of capital means investing in and buying businesses within the EU single market, as well as securing cheaper and more accessible capital.

SEA added that the working group on this chapter is made up of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, National Bank of North Macedonia, Securities and Exchange Commission, Central Registry, Insurance Supervision Agency, Financial Intelligence Office, Ministry of Interior, Financial Police Office, State Commission for Prevention of Corruption and the Secretariat for European Affairs.

“During this week, the Macedonian negotiating team successfully completed the bilateral screenings on Chapters 1 and 4, i.e. Free Movement of Goods and Free Movement of Capital, which are two of the four basic freedoms upon which the EU single market is based.

The bilateral screening meetings on Chapter 9 - Financial Services, Chapter 28 - Consumer and Health Protection, and Chapter 2 - Freedom of Movement for Workers will be held from February 27 until March 3. ad/ik/