Regional Central Banking Seminar on European Integration entitled “On the Road to the EU – Challenges Ahead“, organised by the Central Bank of BiH under the EU funded Eurosystem Technical Assistance Programme, brought together central bank experts from Member States and Western Balkan countries in Sarajevo on Tuesday.

Presentations focused on strengthening the Central bank functions in the EU integration process, and also on ways of developing cooperation among countries in order to jointly address the global financial crisis.   “This has been a very successful project that has helped the BiH Central Bank attain European standards,“ said Renzo Daviddi, Acting Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina. “It is also extremely important to attain these standards because it makes possible for the Central Bank to network with other banks in central and eastern Europe and with the European Central Bank.“

Daviddi noted that Western Balkan countries may have been less affected by the economic crisis because of less complex financial systems and also because of good Central Bank management. However, he warned that the crisis has had a serious impact on the real economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the fact that the country still has no state-level authority has made it difficult to address this.

“Although Bosnia and Herzegovina has fallen behind in implementing necessary reforms, there is still a high level of consensus over its European path and we are confident that this common goal will be achieved“ BiH Central Bank Governor Kemal Kozarić said.   Governor Kozarić said the recent financial crisis has showed that good cooperation among monetary institutions is necessary.

“International cooperation is a precondition for preventing future crises,“ he stressed.

Governor added that the BiH Central Bank is fully aware of its responsibility to maintain financial and monetary stability.

Thierry Bracke, Deputy Head of Division in the Directorate-General for International and EU Neighbouring Regions at the European Central Bank, said in his conference presentation that monetary policy must be orientated towards price stability.

“Experience has shown the key role of central banks in enlargement at the technical and operational level, “he said.

Bracke noted that the European Central Bank’s cooperation programme with the BiH Central Bank began on 1 April last year and will last for 18 months. “This programme aims to help the BiH Central Bank implement EU standards of central banking, “he said.   Head of the Operations Section for Economic Development, Natural Resources and Infrastructure at the EU Delegation to BiH Johann Hesse said the advantage of this project is that “the BiH Central Bank has been connected with European Central Bank and with national banks of EU Member states,  and that is why you see a lot of participants here today from many Member States.“

Hesse said that one of the objectives of the project had been to connect the BiH Central Bank with the central banks from Eurosystem.

BiH Central Bank Vice-Governor Feriha Imamović supported this position and added that the seminar was a step forward in the process of development of European values and promotion of European and international standards in the BiH Central Bank.