anita angelovska bezhoska : strengthening of the institutional capacity of the nbrnm in the process of its accession to the escb speech by ms anita angelovska bezhoska, governor of the national bank of the republic of north macedonia, at the opening conference of the twinning project " strengthening of the institutional capacity of the nbrnm in the process of its accession to the escb ", skopje, 30 october 2019. * * * your excellency gerberich, dear mr. janmaat, secretary vucic, representatives of the central banks of germany and croatia, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to address you at today ’ s event to mark the launch of a particularly important project that we expect to contribute to our further profiling as a modern central bank, with strong capacity and readiness to join the european family of central banks. the european union has been important institutional, economic and political benchmark for us from the outset of the transition process. the eu pre - accession process itself provides key tools that support and reinforce the reform process in a country aspiring to full membership, thereby strengthening its institutional capacity and economic foundations. faster institutional and economic convergence, including faster convergence to the european central bank values, will also mean faster integration into the european family. that is why we, at the national bank, have been strengthening our capacity through various modalities, often with direct eu support using the available tools. active use of taex programs and direct bilateral cooperation with eu central banks are just some of the modalities used to strengthen our infrastructure in various operating segments. in this light, i think it is worth recalling the 2012 ipa project whose primary purpose was a detailed screening of our compliance with the european legislation and practices and a clear identification of gaps. i am pleased that today, thanks to the commitment of my colleagues, many of the gaps identified during the project have already been filled. in today ’ s dynamic environment, however, where european legislation is undergoing major changes, harmonization with european standards is an ongoing process that implies permanent strengthening of the institutions ’ capacities. on behalf of the national bank, i sincerely thank the eu for standing behind us and our efforts for further alignment of the rules, policies and operations with the european standards, with a view to further strengthening macroeconomic and financial stability. by supporting this project, we have been given confidence that we will undoubtedly justify by delivering concrete results. project activities encompass four central banking areas

drawing further monetary policy conclusions, the governing council deems it necessary to gather additional information and carefully examine all new data. against this background, on 4 october 2007 the governing council of the ecb decided to leave the key ecb interest rates unchanged. the governing council will monitor very closely all developments. by acting in a firm and timely manner, and based on its assessment, the governing council will ensure that risks to price stability over the medium term do not materialise and that inflation expectations are firmly anchored in line with price stability, thereby favouring an environment conducive to sustained economic growth, well - functioning markets and job creation. this is even more important at times of financial market volatility and increased uncertainty. in this respect, the governing council will continue to pay great attention to future financial market developments. monetary policy operations ladies and gentlemen, once the governing council has defined the monetary policy stance necessary for maintaining price stability in the medium term, the ecb has the responsibility to ensure the smooth functioning of the segment of the money market that we influence. as i explained last month, these two responsibilities are clearly distinct and should not be mixed. the ecb continued to intervene in the money market in order to ensure its smooth functioning. some tensions indeed remained in the money markets, in particular for maturities beyond one week. these tensions were fostered by the increase in liquidity needs related to banks ’ usual behaviour at the end of the quarter, when they need to adjust their balance sheets. money market interest rates have remained more volatile than usual and our recent operations have attracted strong demand. on 11 september, we conducted a second supplementary long - term refinancing operation with the usual maturity of three months at a variable rate with no pre - announced allotment amount, while the regular long - term refinancing operation was conducted on 26 september as scheduled. in addition, we continued to allot in the regular main refinancing operations significantly larger amounts of liquidity than we would have done under normal circumstances, while aiming at balanced liquidity conditions at the end of the maintenance period. some tentative signs of improvement can now be seen in the money markets, in particular in the commercial paper market. tensions still remain, in particular in the so - called asset backed commercial paper market segment, which has been at the root of the tensions. however, unlike during the peak of the difficulties in august, there is now some differentiation between commercial papers with different underlying assets or different