Project Brief Presentation

The Project “Further Harmonisation with EU acquis in the field of Movement of Capital and Payments and Financial Services – Securities Markets and Investment Services” is financed by the EU IPA Program for Macedonia and aims at the harmonization of the Macedonian financial market legislation with the Acquis Communautaire in the area of capital market and payment services.

All essential directives and regulations in these fields are being transposed currently by the Project experts and the partner institutions – Ministry of Finance, National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fundamental EU legal acts such as the Markets in Financial Instruments II Directive and Regulation, Market Abuse II Regulation, Capital Requirements IV Directive and Regulation, Prospectuses Directive, Transparency Directive, Official Listing Directive, Settlement finality Directive, Payment Services Directive, E-money II Directive will soon become an integral part of the Macedonian legal framework.

The incorporation of the EU legal acts listed above will provide the Republic of Macedonia with a highly efficient regulatory framework which will be up-to-date with the latest legislative developments in the fields of capital markets and payment services. The pieces of new legislation will form a sophisticated system in which the provision shall not overlap or collide, but on the contrary supplement each other and follow same guiding principles.

As a result of the massive legislative reform the market participants, the investors and the payment services provider will be subject to the same rules which are applied across all EU member states and will benefit from the same level of protection of their rights. The supervisory authorities will be vested with a new, comprehensive set of powers which is similar to those of the supervisors in the EU. This will enable the local authorities to successfully tackle all possible challenges which might arise from the wider scope of services and activities which are likely to appear as a result of the implementation of the Acquis.

The project will also contribute to the opening and liberalisation of the Macedonian market as the level of compliance cost for the EU firms which intend to invest in the Republic of Macedonia will be significantly reduced due to the fact that local legal environment in the areas covered by the Project will be identical to the one in the EU member states. The harmonisation of the legislative framework with the one of the EU will foster the entering on the market of new international investors and will contribute to the increase of competition, decrease of costs and widening of choice.

Ultimately the purpose of the institutions involved in this Project is to modernize the legislation, to create conditions for the emergence of new products and services in the Macedonian financial market, to strengthen the financial stability and the powers of the supervisors, to improve the protection of the investors and all market participants.

The project is implemented by Alternative Consulting in consortium with PwC EU Services (BE) and PwC DOOEL Skopje.

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