currently most actions in the legislation pipeline
are aimed to complete the creation of the
European Digital Single Market.
How Ready Are We to Become Part of the
Single Market?
mechanisms to the competitive pressures of the
Single market.
The alignment with the EU acquis, or the set of
EU regulations, directives, and other implementing
acts which need to be transposed or implemented
before the accession, implies profound legal and
structural changes which will certainly have an
impact for the business community and the entire
society. They will probably also bring additional
costs and may have redistributive effects. In
order to mitigate possible negative influences
and contribute to as smooth adjustments as
possible, all the reforms need to be conducted in
a transparent and inclusive manner, with the
business community, social partners and civil
society at the decision-making table.
Where is the Place of the Business Community
in the EU Accession Process?
One of the basic EU accession criteria, defined in
Copenhagen in 1993, is the existence of a
“functioning market economy and the capacity to
cope with competition and market forces in the
EU”. According to the country report published
by the Commission in April 2018, Macedonia is at
a good level of preparation on its way to becoming
a functioning market economy, but only
moderately prepared to cope with competitive
pressures and market forces within the EU. This
in particular refers to the size of the companies
and the size of distribution, as well as the market
structure (the monopolistic position, as well as
the openness of the economy in terms of the
freedom of access by foreign firms to sell their
products domestically). After the accession,
national borders will no longer serve as effective
barriers that safeguard and the market pressure
will no longer be created by domestic companies
only, but by international as well. The varying
degrees of competitive pressure in the product
and factor markets are expected to affect firm
performance. How Macedonian firms will respond
to changing competitive pressure will largely
depend on the incentives and governance
structure. Considering that most of the companies
are small and micro family businesses, the efforts
in the period of accession should be put on
building their governance structure and response
The business community and their representative
organizations are important stakeholders during
the accession process – both as an interested
party that needs to be well informed and kept
abreast of all the new developments and as a
source of information regarding the current
readiness of the domestic economy to join the
EU. However, the government has not yet
established a structure for EU negotiations that
includes the business sector. In addition, efforts
need to be put to strengthen companies’ and
business associations’ capacities to be effectively
included in the negotiations, i.e. to analyze the
possible impact of the Single Market in order to
design alternative scenarios and prepare. Hence,
they need to be able to engage in various EU
initiatives and programs, as to make use of the
exchange, know-how transfer and absorb
available funding. According to European
Commission statistics, only 4 Macedonian
entities – all of them organizations and none of
them a company – have benefited from COSME
(EU’s program for Competitiveness of Small and
Medium Enterprises). Given that over 99 % of all
companies in the country are SMEs, this fact is
one indicator of the low level or awareness and
readiness of Macedonian companies to make
use of the potential gains that the EU puts at their
disposal.
EMERGING MACEDONIA
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