The European Central Bank and the European Commission have approved a program to strengthen macro and micro-economic supervision in Albania and other EU potentials and candidates.
TIRANA Jan. 19 – A program that aims to strengthen macro and micro-economic supervision in Albania and other EU candidates and potential candidates in the Balkans has been given the go-ahead by the European Central Bank and the European Commission, the ECB said this week.
The two bodies signed an agreement to implement a two-year technical assistance program financed by the European Union with 2.65 million euros.
The program would see ECB working together with the national central banks of the euro zone to organize technical assistance for the benefit of the central banks and supervisory authorities of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Turkey and Serbia.
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, member of the Executive Board of the ECB in charge of international and European affairs, said the program will help make macro and micro prudential supervisory institutions in the EU candidates and potential candidates aware of the most recent findings and recommendations identified and proposed by international and European institutions in response to the financial crisis.
By the end of the year, and following up on a regional training programme, the ECB will support the implementation of specific national measures – to be defined in agreement with international financial institutions, partner central banks and beneficiaries – and, during 2011, will implement some region-wide technical simulations on home-host cooperation, including some with EU institutions.
“The stability of the banking systems in the countries concerned is of utmost importance in achieving sustainable economic growth. Thus, the signing of the agreement strengthening micro and macro-prudential supervision in the Western Balkans and Turkey is instrumental in tightening and facilitating cooperation among all the institutions involved,” said Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Enlargement. “In this way we also support the efforts of the countries concerned to keep their EU integration processes on track during the economic crisis.”
To this end, the ECB said in a statement that it will solicit the involvement of a number of partner institutions, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, the Center of Excellence in Finance, the European Banking Federation, the European Parliament, the Financial Stability Institute, the International Monetary Fund, the Joint Vienna Institute and the World Bank.
In the course of 2010, the ECB, together with the 14 participating euro area central banks and in cooperation with the above-mentioned institutions will organize an intensive regional training program for some 150 core supervisors from the beneficiary institutions. This will take the form of 20 training events, the first of which will be held on Feb. 2 to 4, 2010.
There will also be three policy workshops for decision-makers, the first of which will be organized by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors and held on Jan. 27 to 29, 2010.
