Today, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia (NBRM) held the opening conference of the Twinning Light Project “Strengthening the capacities of the system for fight against counterfeiting of euro”, funded by the European Union (EU). This project will be implemented by the Ministry of Interior, the NBRM and the Deutsche Bundesbank, and the project activities will be supported by experts from the Croatian National Bank and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank.

The overall objective of the Project is to support the establishment of a sound and efficient system for the protection of the national financial interest of the country and the financial interest of the EU, through an effective monitoring of the counterfeiting of the euro. The project covers an analysis of the functioning of the system for fight against counterfeiting of notes and coins, the identification of bottlenecks and recommendations for improvement.

The opening of the Conference, which today marked the beginning of the project, was addressed by the Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski, the Vice Governor of the NBRM Emilija Nacevska, the Head of the EU Delegation Samuel Zbogar and the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany Thomas Gerberich. Then, the event presented in more details the project objectives and the activities that are planned to be implemented, as well as the results that are expected to be achieved.

The implementation of this project is expected to result in further improvement and harmonization of the legal framework and the methodology of the system for the fight against counterfeiting of the euro, as well as in development of the administrative capacity in this context. Among other things, the project activities are also expected to result in improvement and integration of the database and IT system used for the fight against counterfeiting of the euro in the country.

This important EU-funded Twinning Light Project is assessed to contribute to strengthening of the cooperation between all relevant domestic and foreign institutions. It is of particular importance also to the NBRM, given the fact that one of the strategic objectives of the Central Bank is the maintenance of a high level of quality of both banknotes and coins in circulation.

The implementation of the project activities aimed at strengthening the capacities of the system for fight against counterfeiting money will last for eight months. For that purpose, the EU allocated a budget of Euro 250,000.