European
Union is one of the main achievements of human mind-kind. The road
was more bumpy than plain. The idea of creation a “kind of United
States of Europe” was launched by Winston Churchill in 1946.
Integration had started as an agreement for coal and steel industries
65 years ago. Then, it became customs union; trade union; economic
union and currency union.
European
Economic and Monetary Union was forged by leaders with great vision
and technocrats that have been discussing, creating consensus and
managing the process. Such combination created and impression that
Europe is sluggish and does not has adequate governance. But,
whenever it is expected that integration of the Europe will be in
halt, the process would get new momentum. That was the case in 1992,
when it was expected that Exchange Rate Mechanism would collapse,
Europe responded with Exchange Rate Mechanism II, and idea of the
single currency. The same was with the introduction of the single
currency – the Euro in January, 1999. When everybody was expecting
Europe in two speeds, core countries to adopt the euro, and then in
second speed the periphery countries, the Europe decided to adopt the
Euro in one speed: core countries and periphery together. Similar has
been the response to the last economic and financial crisis. The
skepticism and speculations that the single currency would break up
were lasting almost for three years. Today, the message is clear,
without the Euro, the Europe will break up. The crisis create
momentum for new wave of stronger integration: banking union, capital
markets union and single banking supervisory authority assigned to
the European Central Bank.
These
proves Jean Monnet statement from 1976 “Europe will be forged in
crisis, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those
crisis.”
In
order to phase out any uncertainty for the future of the European
Union, and to develop a long-term perspective for citizens and
markets on how the framework of EMU should develop, where it could be
considered complete, and where further work will be necessary to
develop stronger common governance “the five EMU presidents”:
Jean-Claude Junker, President of the European Commission; Donald
Tusk, President of the European Council; Jeroen Dijsselbloem,
President of the Eurogrup; Mario Draghi, President of the European
Central Bank; and Martin Schultz, President of the European
Parliament; prepared a report for deeper and fairer economic and
monetary union submitted to informal meeting of the European Council
on 12 February 2015 and to the meeting of the head of states and
governments on 27 April 2015.
The
same pattern of decision making of the European Union refers to
enlargement issue. Europe, first to deal with its’ internal issues
and put in halt enlargement, or to do both processes in parallel. In
this respect, the European Union is speaking with different voices.
Having in mind the way of building consensus, it should not be a
discouragement for countries aspiring to become part of the European
Economic and Monetary Union. Contrary, process of internal reforms
and increasing competitiveness of the economy would be the strongest
tool for joining the EU.
The
Republic of Macedonia is candidate country for becoming an EU member
since 2005. It exchanges 65 percent of its foreign trade with EU and
80 percent of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Macedonia in last
five years have been from EU. Currency is pegged against the Euro
since 2001 and since 1995 against Deutsche Mark. De facto European
Central Bank monetary policy is followed (or applied) in the country.
However, time horizon for integration in the EU is uncertain.
How
Macedonia can achieve higher economic growth and prosperity? Whether
the swift convergence towards EU will increase its’ growth
potential or not? Is swift convergence costless, which brings only
benefits to the economy or there are costs associated with this
process? Shall the economy bear the costs on short run and capitalize
on benefits on long-run? What would be the choice of policy makers?
Whether goal of reforms is to increase competitiveness and growth
potential of Macedonia or they should be oriented to joining EU? Are
these goals in conflict?
These
and other topics will be debated on the blog web page of the European
Business Association of Macedonia. During the next twelve months,
twelve themes shall be opened for discussion -one per month. We shall
invite an expert to introduce the issue at the beginning of the month
with a brief text. We aim these experts’ views to provoke a wider
discussion among the business community, analysts, student,
practitioners etc. Discussion will be closed, at the end of the
month with a short summary highlighting the key points raised.
The
suggested themes will include, but shall not be limited to the
following issues:
- What are the opportunities for Macedonian companies from the integration at the EU market;
- Free movement of capital, goods and services;
- FDIs as a tool to improve competitiveness and good corporate governance practices;
- Macedonian Brands in EU;
- Infrastructural and digital connectivity;
- Harmonization of energy market with the EU standards;
- Telecommunication services and EU standards;
- Role of business associations and cooperation with the policy makers;
- Experiences of the new member states in the EU;
- Education and skills development as growth potentials of the economy;
- Opportunities and challenges for Youth being exposed to a broader market;
- Economic governance and structural reforms.
The
above should not be considered as an all-embracing list of topics.
They may be amended or modified based on the interest of the general
audience that will visit the web blog. In this respect we invite all
of you actively to debate in next twelve months. The introduction of
the first topic will be on November 16, 2015.
Sincerely
Yours,
Gligor
Bishev PhD
President
of the European Business Association
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