harmonised with EU rules and regulations in
areas such as rights of establishment of
companies, provision of services, liberalisation of
payments and movement of capital. This makes
it easier for Macedonian companies to register
subsidiaries and provide services in the EU. It
also facilitates the acquirement of real estate in
the EU, as well as the opening of bank accounts
in EU Member States, both for citizens and
companies.
Contrary to the SAA, the accession negotiations do
not have a legally binding character. The speed
with which they can be concluded depends on
the reforms pace of the country itself. For most
chapters, there will be so called opening and
closing benchmarks for every area (or ‘chapter’)
of the EU legislative framework (the so called
“acquis communautaire”). Opening benchmarks
will usually take the form of legislation and/or
strategies and action plans having to be in place
for a certain chapter. Closing benchmarks will
likely take the form of a ‘track record’, showing
that the country is able to implement the
transposed EU legislation.
To illustrate this, let’s take the example of free
movement of goods, one of the cornerstones of
the EU’s internal market. First, legislation in this
area will have to be aligned with EU rules and
regulations. Then, to close this chapter, the
authorities of North Macedonia will have to prove
to be able to implement this legislation. For this,
the local institutions will have to show to be up to
the task of adopting EU product standards and
of market surveillance. This in turn will facilitate
exports of locally produced goods to the EU.
Similar processes will take place in other
important trade related areas of EU legislation,
such as customs, energy, transport and financial
services.
The main challenges in this process for local and
foreign companies active in the country relate to
the requirement to produce high quality goods,
complying with the relevant product safety, health
and environmental standards, while remaining
competitive on the EU and domestic market. The
degree to which the local economy is already
integrated into the EU in terms of exports in this
respect sends a hopeful signal for the future.
EMERGING MACEDONIA
13